study for a 10 foot portrait UPDATED 3/16 and its bigger than they told me!

[bwkeough]

http://nand.net/~keough/among-the-trees.gif

I've volunteered myself to paint a set piece for a musical of The Secret Garden. The director wants an 8 x 10 foot portrait of the mother in her garden before she dies and the husband builds walls around it.

This is my working study for the image that I will use as my plan. The pencil layer will be printed separately and copied to a transparency that will be traced onto the stretched scrim. Scrim I recently learned is a fabric that is woven almost like a tight fishnet--should be interesting to paint on.... The other wrinkle is that this theatre usually uses casein for scrim painting. I've never used casein before and I really don't know how it works. It looks kind of like watery tempera when it's in a bucket.

Since I have another week or so before I will need to start work on the final, please point out any weaknesses you see in the composition, perspective, anatomy, etc!!

Thanks!

Brendan

[Gr8t100]

bwkeough, I first want to say that this style, this method of creating compisitions is incredible. I really like how it's loose, yet all the details needed are still implied.

The only weakness I can spot at this moment is the amount of lighting on the figure, if she was to stand underneath a tree, wouldn't there be some noticable shadows shown? Overall though, very nice.

[bwkeough]

gr8t100- thanks for the compliments! It's taken me many years to "take the stick out of my butt" as my art teachers used to say. I used to be overly detail-oriented.

Good point about the lack of shadows on the face, there should definitely be some dappled light and shadows coming through the leaves. I was last working on improving the likeness to my photo reference of the actress and I neglected the lighting of the environment. Thanks!

[bwkeough]

I've worked up new concept after meeting with the director. He wanted some specific changes: white dress, tree large enough to climb into, holding a basket of flowers, more of the garden with a wall and a maze visible in the background.

Same crit request applies here: tell me what looks funky now, so I can make changes before I transfer it to the large scrim later this week.

http://www.nand.net/~keough/before-the-maze.gif

[bwkeough]

So, I had been told the image area would be 8 feet by 10 feet. I think it's closer to 12 feet high, but I haven't measured it. I was also told the paints they wanted me to use were casein. They're not. It's an acrylic based paint that's super-concentrated. It's made by a company called Rosco specifically for scene-painting in theatres. The same company makes a whole line of big-ass brushes for the theatre industry, too.

I've been working on the real-life version for about 12 hours now (started a week ago, evenings and weekends).

here are two in-progress pics. the first one is from the Saturday, shows the scale of this beast, the ladder/platform I use when I'm working on it and my lunch ;) (my lunch is on a low table although it looks like it's on the floor)

http://nand.net/~keough/31304.gif

this second one is where I left off last night. I spent a few hours revising the tree because I realized I had painted the Most Boring Tree Ever Conceived. You can probably see the brick wall through the top of the scrim here. At various points in the play the painting will be back-lit and the actors behind will be visible as if through a fog--it'll be semi-transparent.

http://nand.net/~keough/31504.gif

Tell me what you think! I've got about another week and half to finish this up, so don't wait until opening night to suggest a major revision that'll make me feel like an idiot for not noticing earlier!

-Brendan

[sparky | emily]

maybe it's the angle in the picture, but in the real version, her smile seems a bit evil.

[bwkeough]

damn, I have the dreaded red X. I'll have to pester my server people tonight. Sorry, folks.

[bwkeough]

ok, server's back up, not sure how long it was down for.

sparky | emily : I'll have to get a close-up of the face when I go tomorrow, see if you feel the same way about it then. Thanks for looking!