I enjoy the way the rocks are functioning as illustrative marks move in and out of the crevices between the rocks. I tried to delineate the changes between rock to rock without too much change in value and the use of mainly expressive lines with India ink. There was a point in time where I began to darken in too many areas and the tone began to read as muddy. In order to work some clarity back into the rocks I began to layer thin gesso back over the rocks to maintain the linear structure of the rock.
The man’s body has swift washes of ink in order to block in the muscle structure that composes his back, leg and foot. He has an intense farmer’s tan which can be seen in the shift between the tone of his neck and upper back. I went in with dark scratchy marks to describe the depth of his roots underneath the tufts of his white hair.
I chose carefully to use color in a selective palette in order to lead the eye through and around the composition. The pops of color on the boat were painted in in order to emphasize their structure and tie them to the water in the background. There is an interesting push/pull happening between the water and the figure in the foreground as he sits in front of it. The shorts have a hit of orange to suggest the figure’s longing after the distance and looks out of the picture plane in order to further demonstrate that longing.
The selective use of color is an effort to lead the eye around the canvas and draw special attention to specific areas of the painting. I chose this photograph to work from in order to emulate the work of Zak Smith in my own version of the style. Zak uses linear descriptive black lines with selective color in his portraiture and sketches.
I began with an under drawing done in pencil then moved into an India ink wash to capture information with bold marks. I enjoyed working with the fabric and patterns of items in the background and jacket that suggest areas of the composition and provide points of departure for the eye to travel in space.
After most of the information was blocked in I began to work with the skin tone in the face which got fussy at some points. I went back in with thin white lines to hint at the planes of the face. The mark making jumps around at different places in an effort to experiment with looseness of marks and direction of application and show the shift between surface texture of the objects. I am enjoying the gradient in the hair tone and the contrast between marks made and tone washed through the area.
The area of clear plastic sheeting draped as insulation underneath the rafters needs some work yet to get the feel of the draping and the tautness of the material. There is some fabric-like quality with the luster of the highlights.
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