More Abstracts

Blocks.  Watercolor.
Approximately 11x18 inches.

Last post, I wrote about scaling up abstracts. This morning, I was trying to scale up to a larger landscape, and it evolved into an abstract.  Huh.  I got to a certain point, and sort of attacked it in frustration, and then when I came back around tried to make a go of it.  The shapes that stretch down?  They all originated from my attack.

I started with hansa yellow medium, ultramarine blue, napthamide maroon, and cadmium orange hue from daniel smith.  On the second go around, I thought areas of the painting needed to be more connected by shape, and I couldn't go lighter in the top quarter unless I started to pull in crayon.  I tried going back with indigo to block out larger shapes, and think that works reasonably well.  (I think it would work better with different colors.  Sometimes I put a palette together, and then wonder what I was thinking.)

There are a couple of take away lessons for me.....one's not to give up on a painting too early....I see this when kids draw and paint, where they make two marks and think they've made a mistake.  They want a new piece of paper immediately rather than soldiering on.  The second is to balance shapes with color.