Dinner with Friends
30″ x 24″
Oil on Masonite

February 9 & 10, 2009

This process is one of two places in the painting process where I find the computer to be an excellent painting tool, the first being the work that was done in creating the drawings in the first place.

I wanted to explore not only the arrangement of the horses in the painting, but their size relative to the landscape. The easiest way to do that was with Photoshop, so I opened up the most recent image of the painting and converted it into a line drawing using one of the etching filters.

Next, I copied each of the two horses over that line drawing, moving them around and changing their sizes relative to each other and to the landscape. I also played with their placement relative to each other.

The possibilities were probably endless, but after over an hour spent at the task, I decided to call the job done. I had three nice compositions, as well as a fairly good idea of what would work and what wouldn’t.

Two related ideas also arose through this process. The first one is rather whimsical: A ‘four seasons’ type of series with same landscape and the same two horses but moving things around.

The second idea may well be the best idea for the evening. It came as I was closing up shop for the day. My first response was that it was a good idea. The second response was that it would require a lot more changes than just the horses. I’m a little more hesitant with that idea because it would essentially require starting over nearly from scratch.

It did still seem worth exploring the next day, so I made the required changes in Photoshop and found that composition to be the most pleasing overall.

As they were finished, each of the new compositions was loaded into my screen saver rotation. They will remain there for anywhere from a few days to a week so I can view them randomly and in rotation. For me, it’s a lot easier to judge the quality of images on a computer monitor, especially drawings and paintings in progress.

I have also found this type of review very helpful in determining gut reaction to ideas and images. Some ideas I like immediately quickly lose their appeal.

Some that seemed only so-so at first take on new appeal with each look.

I’m not sure which will be the case this time. I really like the final composition, but it will require removing and redoing a lot of the painting to move the elements around.

On the other hand, that would allow me to work on the painting from beginninng to end with the Flemish painting technique I will be studying and that seems like a good thing.

Another possibility is to do a second painting with the horses and finish the current one without the horses. Two paintings for the price of one!

I do know one thing for certain: It would have been a lot better to go through this process at the beginning of the painting process instead of at the end! Oh well! Every bit of painting I do advances the goal; even when I’m starting over.

This painting is available for sale. Pre-Completion Purchases receive a 10% discount off full retail price upon payment of order deposit. Payment in full in cash earns a 20% discount off retail.

Interested buyers may also request basic changes to the painting such as changing the color and markings of the horses.

Thank you for reading and, as always, best wishes.

©Copyright 2009 by Carrie L. Lewis. See original post here.
To learn more about this artist, visit her website.