Valentine's Day is over, and I'm finally getting around to posting this! I'm actually really loving this piece. Some of my other "eye" pieces have not turned out so compelling. One of the reasons I wanted to do these close encounter pieces is to narrow my focus in on one specific spot and see if I can get as much of the detail as I can. When I am working on a larger piece I often get so excited to see it complete that I don't fulfill my own expectations on the detail. Its quite a conundrum because I love doing detailed work, but I also hate waiting to see it complete.
Okay, I know the real question we are all thinking is where is the purple of the month? Alright, maybe you weren't really thinking it, but now you are! Purple is the color of the week, and yes this piece has very minimal purple. However, splashing everything with pretty purple was not really the point of this challenge. Instead I wanted to just add the color and see where the color actually works to enhance my paintings. With this one purple actually is seen more in the shadows. So often artists start out just making shadows with either black or just a darker value of the other colors. But shadows are more than that. They have their own color palette and often purple is one of those colors. With this painting adding a touch or two of purple into the shadows helped define the shadows as different than the black of the pupil. I really wonder if this might be why I enjoy this piece....hmm...
So with a little touch of purple, we can enhance our shadows! A new technique added to my list that I know I will be using more often. I hope you can find some purple in the world around you where you least expect it. Color is all around us, we just have to look for it!
Next post is about how purple can also be used to highlight! Whoa....shadows and highlights?? What can't purple do?! We have the rest of the month to find out.
Remember each of these paintings posted here are listed on eBay starting at the $0.99 bid. Just follow the link at the end of the post to place your bids. This one ends Thursday night at 9pm EST.
Be safe and warm this weekend!
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