Here, at long last, is the latest painting, titled "Summer".I'm pretty pleased with the way this one came out. It very closely resembles the image I had in my head, with a few improvements that occurred as I was painting.
I had had the figure sketched for quite some time, but I was not sure what to do with the background or with the water. Nor was I sure how to best go about getting the very flat, almost cartoonish look of the final painting.
In the end, using tape to seperate colors came to my aid once again, as it gave me the methodology for painting in the background, while experimentation with gauche acrylics and heavy-body white combinations provided the colors and thickness I needed for the flat look.
The one thing that I was vaguely unhappy with at the end was the inconsistency of the black line around the figure, but I finally decided that it was as good as I was capable of making it and that if I had wanted perfection I should have used a computer in the first place. Once again, the old saw holds true - paintings are never finished, only abandoned.
The major struggle with this painting, and one that each viewer will have to decide on their own how successful I was, was to make it sexy without being sleazy. Several shades and applications of paint were put down before deciding on a combination that I felt was sexy but not too sexy.
All in all, I quite like this one, and I finally feel satisfied with the flat, cartoon look that I've been aiming for. While I have several more ideas for paintings in a similar style, I may try a few other things first, just for variety and because, well, trying new things is the whole point of this hobby.
