Thursday, February 16, 2023

Park Gazebo - Fix It Friday!

 

Park Gazebo, 12 x 12, oil on panel, L. Daniel © 2023

I do love a Friday Fun Day... A different perspective and freedom to play... 

Today I am revisiting FIX IT FRIDAY - a practice from the cooped up Covid days of 2020! During that time, I posted a new "fixer upper" for 25 straight weeks in a row! It got me through the dog days of staying home and social distancing. From there, I moved to FIGURES ON FRIDAY (like the one I posted HERE last week). Both practices offer a little break and are good for my soul. ;)


BEFORE

AFTER

Problem - Lighting is overall muted and flat.
Fix - Increased the contrast by "pushing" the darks and lights on the structure and foreground trees.
Fix - Brightened the sky with a more intense blue and contrasty clouds.
Fix - Changed the gazebo roof to a cooler, crisper color (which makes its shade below it feel like a cooler place to be too.) 

Problem - Figure on left was not working for me. Too large? Proportions off?
Fix - When in doubt - DELETE! What a relief!
Fix - Narrowed the path which got too wide trying to accommodate my odd figure. 

OBSERVATIONS

Sometimes I can see that I have fallen short with my value range. (It's always so much easier to see after the fact. We get retina fatigue and just stop too soon.) That was happening here. It just needed that final pop of values to set the light and overall tone of the painting. 

Now I can feel the ocean breeze and the sunshiny reflection off the water. Ahhh!


2023 SPRING WORKSHOPS (click HERE and join me):
April 14-15 - The Contemporary Austin Art School in Austin, TX (Full with wait list)
May 4-6 - Anderson Fine Art Gallery in St. Simons Island, GA

2 comments:

Bern A said...

Love “fix it Friday”! The improvements really make a difference to an already great piece. I feel like virtually all of my studio refinements for plein air work is value contrast issues… didn’t know retinal fatigue was a thing, but thank you for giving me something to call it.

Laurel Daniel said...

Thank you, Bern!!! AND YES!! Retinal fatigue is a THING! The longer we look at something the more we see... kind of like getting used to seeing in the dark. It's good for getting a drink of water at night, but not so great for painting because our eyes eliminate the shadows (which is the good stuff). SOOOOOOOOOO.... SQUINTTING DOWN is the answer. Often and more often.