Earlier this morning, I read another artist's blog that discussed "what if". It seemed especially relevant since I just completed a "what if" with my Siamese Cat. While the painting was drying, it was sitting on a window sill, near a bonsai jade plant. A bit further away is a pole lamp whose light was casting the most beautiful shadows from the jade onto the bottom of the panel the cat is on. The first time it caught my eye, I thought "what happened to my painting?". I spent a far bit of time staring at it and thinking, what if? What if I painted those shadows on? The background paint was still quite wet then, so I let it dry. Then, last night, I knelt on the floor in front of the painting and proceeded to paint the shadows right over the cast shadow. It was much harder mixing the color than I imagined. Ever time I mixed, the value was way too dark. So, I kept making my value lighter. Finally, I got to where I could paint over the shadow without darkening it. But... to my surprise, when I moved the painting out of the shadows and into the light - my shadows disappeared! Ach! Back to mixing and making the value darker. I fetched my flashlight and kept shining it on my painting to make sure my shadows were there. It worked pretty well. This morning, in daylight, my shadows were there. Cool.
I'm including two photos with this post. The first one shows the shadows the way they were when I first saw them. I couldn't use a flash to take that photo, so you'll see the color is way off. The second photo shows the painting now that I've added my own "shadows". This one is nearly done, only the whiskers left to do, I think, and they will have to wait till the paint is dry.
Thanks for stopping by!
susan
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