Friday, February 13, 2009

Leaf 4


Well, there was one more old leaf I found in my pile of objets. I was glad to see it, but painting it was extremely frustrating. It's hard to determine, in a translucent subject, what exactly is light vs. shadow vs. reflected light. Like so many things in painting, it's something that seems like it should be pretty much straightforward, but once you start doing it, you realize that in fact it is not so cut-and-dried. In the end I was happy with it, though.

More art on my website: jalapfaff.com

8 comments:

SamArtDog said...

Now, that leaf is HOT! Same color background as my new chairs. Great minds love red. Why, even the word verification thingy starts with r-e-d. Omens are everywhere.

brian eppley said...

You make a great point about the differences in light on airy light(not heavy)subjects. Throw in the translucent factor and all the squinting, one eyed, upside down viewing techniques seem fruitless. In the end I think you did a great job on this one, and I bet you'll breeze through your next solid form.

loriann signori said...

Once again, it's that reflected color in the underside of the leaf that just drives me nuts! You really know how to add a delightful surprise. Beautiful Jala!

Laurel Daniel said...

You nailed the delicate shadows and defining highlights of this leaf... gorgeous!

Dar Presto said...

I have a thing for leaves, and I'm completely in love with this one.

Jala Pfaff said...

Sam - gracias. You're right, it's exactly the color of the awesome chairs of yours.

Brian - You made me laugh. I tried almost all those techniques to try to determine which kind of light I was seeing in a given place on the leaf, and they were all almost useless and I just had to sort of wing it.

Loriann - Thanks. Lately my favorite thing of all in painting is exaggerating reflected light color. Donno why, but it sure is fun.

Laurel, Dar - Thank you so much.

Carolyn Finnell said...

this is lovely and delicate. It looks like it would crumble into dust with a touch. Fabulous.

Jala Pfaff said...

Carolyn - Thank you. It IS delicate, and now that it's done its duty as an art model, it will go back into the outside world to crumble to dust and provide fodder for next year's crop of leaves.