I had the good fortune to travel to Sint Maarten this winter. One of the marvelous aspects of the island is its architecture. The very best example of the exuberant color used was this building in the center of Philipsburg on the Dutch side of the island. the entire structure was a piece of art, and a sight to behold. It was an inspiration...
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It really helps to do a color value sketch before doing a painting. This is a detail of bracelets for a larger portrait. I needed to practice the most detailed and difficult section of the painting before putting oil to canvas. The bracelets and their reflection I felt would give me the most trouble and I wanted to practice the reflection especially. Several sketches, value studies and color sketches help you concentrate on painting once you have the overall values, composition and difficult areas well regulated. I will work on the reflection again before I begin the oil painting and I will do an overall sketch of the entire portrait.
Alla Prima painting sketch of peaches. Alla Prima consists of three layers of oil paint: A quick composition sketch, a quick dark color layer and a top layer, all done at one sitting, while the paint is still wet. This is a fun activity using transparent paints on the second layer and a top layer of opaque paints. In this exercise I tried to use the under layer in the bowl as complete without covering it in opaque paint : hoping to give the painting a feeling of immediacy, The peaches were created using brush and paper towel for that light, fuzzy look to the peaches, The dark underlayer also can be seen in the core section. The napkin and the background are treated in a loose manner to contrast with the peaches. The color choice was using complementary colors of blue and orange and purple and yellow. * the photo used was by Rita Paradis and the painting created at a workshop with artist Rita Paradis.
Views of Mt. Equinox from below and from the top. There is a skyline drive toll road, www.equinoxmountain.com/skylinedrive_index.php which takes you right to the top of the mountain, with beautiful views of the surrounding area. Artist Rockwell Kent lived in Arlington, VT and painted views of this mountain, www.wildlifeart.org/collection/artists/artist-rockwell-kent-236/artwork-mount-equinox-vermont-44/, The area is beautiful especially in the Fall with the changing seasons, Nearby are the towns of Arlington and Manchester with lovely restaurants and historic house.
Blurring the background can help a food photo. It puts the viewer in context without compromising the privacy of people at tables in the vicinity. Even if using a smart phone you can blur areas after the fact to achieve this effect. Hope this is helpful to others, like me, who are new to food photography. This is a photo of a breakfast Poutine taken at "School", a wonderful and inventive restaurant in the Liberty Village section of Toronto, Canada: www.schooltoronto.com/ One of the hardest things to photograph I find is food, especially at a restaurant. It is difficult to capture the table and food without getting people who are sitting at other tables into the shot. I chose to shoot down to avoid the people around. When taking this photo I had the couple next to me laughing about how people always seem to photograph food these days... This is another problem with photographing near people who don't see the beauty of table settings. This photo was taken at Mrs. Bridges Pantry, in Woodstock, CT: www.facebook.com/Mrs-Bridges-Pantry-LLC-208762370562/ |
Agnes WnukPhotography and fine arts. Archives
March 2018
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