April 28th, 2006 by admin
Fluid piece from past contrasts with overworked recent work
Mountain Sails - digital painting - Dan Beck circa 1998
Originally I was planning on sharing a recent digital painting - but I surprised myself by not being able to undo a mistake. I write all the time about mistakes being mistakes only in relation to what follows - meaning - they can be ok and even a blessing if you keep working.
Well I did, but the color in the piece had gotten too muddy … and even though I worked it to a point that I liked it - when printed it just didn’t sing.
But above is a piece I did many years ago. It was quite fluid - not overworked - and as far as I am concerned quite pleasing.
My understanding of the medium was quite limited at the time, but I had learned how to overlap translucent color gradients and that was huge.
Anyway - I am offering the above piece as an example of what works … and chalking up my latest piece to not everything can be so good.
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Relevant Tags:color gradients, digital painting, fluid painting, fluid piece, overlapping color, understanding medium
February 21st, 2006 by admin
Digital Medium, Gradients, Washes, Texture, Material
Afternoon Overlap - Digital Painting - 2005 - Landscape Art Gallery
This particular piece was successful because of the feeling it invokes - well at least in me. The overlapping of color is quite characteristic of the type of thing one can do using the digital medium. Not to say with washes, one can’t do similar things on canvas or directly on paper- but the gradients and transparencies overlap nicely using the computer.
This is actually one of the things I particularly like about using this medium. I have discussed the overlapping gradients at another time in this blog and will undoubtedly continue to do so.
It is one of the backbones of my painting technique and this particular piece shows it off.
The other thing I like in particular about this piece is how warm the texture makes it all feel. It is almost like the hills are made of material. And that is indeed how this particular view of the different colored lettuces growing on the overlapping fields made me feel. The mountains from this particular vantage point were all you could see behind the hills.
Though my approach is once again not all that literal - it does manage to capture what I experienced and create an image which I feel is also pleasing in itself.
See Also
Relevant Tags:digital medium, digital painting, gradients, landscape art, overlapping color, texture, Washes
