Thursday, January 18, 2007

"Village Street" 6"x8" Oil /panel

This painting is another pre-snow painting. As in the previous painting , it was painted with the aid of the photo that had been modified by doing "thumbnail sketches". Modified, meaning that I preplanned the painting using small drawings, usually no bigger than 2 1/2" x 3" or proportionate to the painting support.

These small drawings would include the origin or direction of the light in the painting, thus dictating the shaded sides of objects and their values. These values would also give me the foreground, middle ground and background objects or in other words, the "aerial perspective". On the whole, these sketches constitute the "composition" or "layout" of the painting. The thumbnails, being small, there is little or no room for the addition of details.

These thumbnails are a wealth of information, allowing the artist to start "blocking in" the painting and proceed with confidence.





Okay...now let's put this little painting into a frame and see what it looks like. Hmmm..

Although the painting looks small by itself, the frame will make it appear larger. Suddenly, this painting is now 15"x17". A comfortable size.

I tend to use the gold frame with a white liner and a small moulding next to the painting. I feel that it creates the effect of looking into the painting because of the bevelled edge. I am sure that it is just a "quirk" of mine.

I find this frame to be very complimentary and very neutral. In most cases, it does not fight for attention with the colours in the painting and at the same time it has the ability to separate the painting from the wall colour on which it is hung.
The presentation of your painting is important and it deserves to be complimented by good framing.
'til next.

2 comments:

Michael Pieczonka said...

Frank really impressive. I love the looming feeling of the tree in the center top. Also thanks for sharing your technique for this piece. I am at the point where I'd like to try some competent studio work, and your process is very helpful... ;)

cheers, Mike

Frank A. said...

Mike, glad that I could help. Good luck with the studio work. I am sure that it will be great ! :=)

Take care..