Adding color and texture - one thing leads to another

Window View - digital painting / art prints - Dan Beck 2006

In some ways I like the simplicity of yesterday’s start. At the small size like directly above - the even simpler digital painting seems to work better for me. However, when it is printed at 13 x 19″ or larger, it needs the extra detail to look like a finished art print.

Nevertheless, I tried to maintain the simplicity which I liked so much in the first place. I added color to make it more like wading in the fields, rather than wading in the water.

I added texture and additional color to make the fields themselves be of interest. In doing so, everything else - mountains and figures had to have comparable weight - meaning they required additional texture and color for the piece to hold together.

This is why it is so difficult to stop a piece at the right time - one thing leads to another and you have to add this which means adding that - and before you know it, the character of the piece has changed…

but at least you have enjoyed the process.

See Also

• Rainy Halloween Harvest
  First - out the window painting - this one done live in 2003
• Postcards from Thailand -page 1
  Fascinating how similar the rice workers look to strawberry pickers and how wading in the field compares to wading elephants
• Strawberry Fields Forever? - Rethinking Schools - Volume 19 No. 3 - Spring 2005 - Rethinking Schools Online
  The perspective on what it is like to be out there picking - and a good story of giving back