Bridget's Room Series: The Town, part 2

As part 2 kicked off, I wanted to include something in the sky that could never physically be there, communicating the magical nature of this place.

I decided to include a directional nautical star, painted into the sky. Why is there? I have no idea. It just is in this world.

At the same time birds were added to indicate depth. I also needed to make the objects in the sky overlap to continue the suggestion of depth.

The two balloons within the painting were looking too similar and I wanted differentiation. This balloon was modeled after an antiquated, turn of the century balloon.  

The skydiver caused many issues. The nylon baffles of the chute are naturally translucent, but the paper was overworked, so I added white. This is not traditional nor academically correct. The traditional way a watercolor is created is by using the white of the paper to stand as highlight.White pigments can naturally flatten out paintings and so it is discouraged. I do it all of the time and if used correctly, has many advantages.

The town proper. The buildings and people in the streets were amended to seem taller and smaller respectively. The initial town buildings had the same number of floors and windows as the blue house, the people were the same size as the people in the house's yard. The perspective was thrown off by this, so it was repaired.

 Finished Bridget, overlooking the town.

And the finished product. The Town. 

Next up in Bridget's Room Series: The Race!

Bridget's Room Series: The Town, part 1

In the first piece for Bri's room I wanted to create a bright world where future paintings in the series can fit into. The Town is the first painting in a series of three that will be set within a magical world, a fun place where anything can happen and where everyone wants to be.

This was the first sketch in the start of that process: 

I ultimately scrapped this initial layout for a couple of reasons, The layout wasn't exactly right and I didn't attach the paper to the tape and board correctly, so it got trashed.

This is the re-draw and it suits my taste better. More of the town is exposed on the hillside and other details are more prevalent such as the far off river and lower homes. 

Color begins:

Cowgirl Bridget, asleep on the hill overlooking the town:

I want the painting to communicate that this town is a place where all people want to get to from all different times and races and people groups.

I wanted to show magical modes of travel to access this town. This British Navy Galleon is juxtaposed with a skydiver. This town can't be reached by any regular forms of travel.

 

End part 1. Part 2 to contain installation of figures in the streets and on floating crafts, further development of colors, value, and varied distances, and sunlight development.

Abandoned Stephen King Art Project: Missing the thread of Redemption

 
In all forms of art, I search for threads of redemption. I can find it anywhere; in movies, songs, 2D art, 3D art, and, believe it or not, Stephen King novels. 

After a year of reading only SK novels I got that familiar feeling. I wanted to make something.

I had trouble visualizing a particular antagonist in one of SK's stories. I wanted to visualize her. As I pondered this, I discovered that my next project could be fleshing out all of the most famous villains that populate King's worlds.

In fact, I could do both a "villains" and a "heroes" painting.

While I love his stories, style, dialogue, settings, conflicts, and liberal but accurate use of vulgar language (a trait which I exhibit daily), his heroes can be the major failing of his stories. They are most often middle-aged white guys with some success in a creative field (most often writing) who are inexplicably forced into crazy situations. The idea of painting a bunch of these guys bored me to no end. So I was stuck with the villains, but not to my dismay. The villains are colorful, weird, and varied; a great subject for a painting.

Strangely though, I found that spending too much time with all of these characters was... not sure how to say it... disconcerting? disturbing? Something like that.

As much as I LOVE SK and his weird creations and stories, I couldn't continue the project. Was I worried that negativity would get in too deep? Maybe so. The thing that I like about SK is that his stories conclude well. They almost always end with some kind of positive, return to reality, kind of ending. The good guys usually win out. But in my painting, good was not going to win. "Good" was nowhere near it.
 
Description: Watercolor on Paper/ Roughly 24"x18"
Setting: A Maine field with all of the most deadly, dangerous, and disgusting Stephen King villains. Positioning: Standing, sitting, or emerging from the cursed ground from the novel Pet Semetary. 
Characters: All characters surround the Crimson King, sitting lazily on his candle-throne. Pennywise in spider form spins a web from the top of the King's throne to the leg of the giant six-legged beast from The Mist. Randall Flagg and his minion-selves all lean on the King's throne with a smile. Deceased Gage Creed emerges from the cursed Indian burial ground, near his dead family cat and rabid Cujo standing nearby. Rose the Hat, the Raggedy Man, many Low-Men, the Plymouth Fury named Christine, and Carrie, on fire, covered in blood, and floating in mid-air, are just a few of the others in attendance. 

It would have been awesome. I got excited again from just typing the description. However, I kept asking myself the question: Why fill my mind creating the faces of evil when evil is just a news story away? The bottom line is that the painting contained too much malevolence. It contained a distorted reflection of the real malevolence that pervades our world.

In all forms of art, I search for threads of redemption. I can find it in people's lives and stories, movies, songs, 2D art, 3D art, and, believe it or not, SK novels. But it was nowhere to be found in the ugliness that the painting would have embodied. This is why the painting had to be abandoned. I needed redeeming value in it to sustain me throughout the process and beckon me back to look at the painting again and again. It was an exciting idea, but there were no threads of redemption running through it. Oh well, back to the drawing board...