June 10th, The colors

Whale color comp

Well, here's what I was think'in.

When I started, I didn't really have a color scheme in my head.  All I knew is I wanted it to be open air.  Open air as apposed to under water.  If I painted this to look like it was under water it would change the entire meaning of the piece.  It would turn it into a post apocalyptic / global warming thing.  That doesn't interest me.

Since I knew I wanted the image to be in the air I just started coloring what I knew, like the black of the whale.  Easy, huh?  This color comp is just to get the ideas going.  It's nothing that I will hold myself to follow.  As I paint, if things start shifting in another direction, and questions arise, I'll grab the color comp and change it so I can get a better idea on how to handle the rest of the painting.  The color comp is a tool.

On this painting I am already looking to the area under the whales belly and under his fin.  There's going to be some nice washed out light happening here and I'm think'in I want the alley way just under the fin to  be a hot spot - We'll see when we go big.  It may break up the eye flow too much and make the painting confusing.  I'll need to think more about this area.  Another area is the dark foreground shadow - it too dark, this will change.  The comp also tells me is how dark to start the sky - being next to the dark whale I'll need to stay darker so the sky doesn't look washed out.  Like I said, the comps are used to just get the ideas going - and they have started.

The comp itself is just an enlarged photo copy of my sketch.  This color comp is on the big side for me, it's 5x8 inches.  Most of my comps are in the 3 to 5 inch range on the long side.  I usually start with colored pencils and add acrylics.  This comp has 5-6 layers of pencil and two layers of white acrylic.  The white is used to lighten and to subdue (like the power pole in the background.)  For this painting I wanted to see what it would look like under water so I scanned it into photoshop and put a blue layer over it.  I was right about the look it gave and tossed it.

I'm getting excited to paint.

Larry