I was a little worried about the background, but my fears have been allayed! There's an effervescence here that I really like. All those tiny fish make the water sparkly. And I like the way the medium sized fish are mosaic-ed, but not as much as the main subject. And the smallest fish? At a cursory glance, they look to be bubbles and then you notice they are fish and look closer.
I don’t know how you do it, but the background always brings everything together. The little fish work perfectly altho I kind of wish the big little fish had a more mosaic look. Or more variety— they all look very similar in color and size. And you know the one rule of successful painting : never make any two intervals the same....
I put in the big little fish before I knew that I would put in the itty-bitty fish which are really just teardrop shapes with a dot for the eye. I'm not that happy with the big fish, but there is so much paint on them that I don't know how I can change them.
Interesting what you say about intervals, is that like never put an even number of clouds in the sky? I always like to keep things like the itty-bitties in kind of a random yet regular order, but sometimes if I have a whole lot of fish to put in I get a little bored and tend towards making the pattern too regular.
Re the big little fish: do you ever lift off paint & then go back in? I do that a lot more now after seeing that video of that nature artist at the Field Museum (her name is Peggy something) lifting and repainting. After that I think of it more as a technique, less as trying to fix a mistake....
I've been doing a lot of lifting lately, but everytime you lift there is a little more paint left behind, and in the case of the little big fishes, they have been lifted too many times to get them to pale.
Seems my comment disappeared...I like what you did with the water, like it's shattered and even though it's all the same, it still looks exciting and different with all the faceting. I wonder if the mid-size fish could freshen up a bit if their mosaic lines were shaped differently - like the big fish - rather than zig-zagged, or more colorful, something.
I was a little worried about the background, but my fears have been allayed! There's an effervescence here that I really like. All those tiny fish make the water sparkly. And I like the way the medium sized fish are mosaic-ed, but not as much as the main subject. And the smallest fish? At a cursory glance, they look to be bubbles and then you notice they are fish and look closer.
ReplyDeleteI don’t know how you do it, but the background always brings everything together. The little fish work perfectly altho I kind of wish the big little fish had a more mosaic look. Or more variety— they all look very similar in color and size. And you know the one rule of successful painting : never make any two intervals the same....
ReplyDeleteI put in the big little fish before I knew that I would put in the itty-bitty fish which are really just teardrop shapes with a dot for the eye. I'm not that happy with the big fish, but there is so much paint on them that I don't know how I can change them.
ReplyDeleteInteresting what you say about intervals, is that like never put an even number of clouds in the sky? I always like to keep things like the itty-bitties in kind of a random yet regular order, but sometimes if I have a whole lot of fish to put in I get a little bored and tend towards making the pattern too regular.
Re the big little fish: do you ever lift off paint & then go back in? I do that a lot more now after seeing that video of that nature artist at the Field Museum (her name is Peggy something) lifting and repainting. After that I think of it more as a technique, less as trying to fix a mistake....
ReplyDeleteI've been doing a lot of lifting lately, but everytime you lift there is a little more paint left behind, and in the case of the little big fishes, they have been lifted too many times to get them to pale.
DeleteSeems my comment disappeared...I like what you did with the water, like it's shattered and even though it's all the same, it still looks exciting and different with all the faceting. I wonder if the mid-size fish could freshen up a bit if their mosaic lines were shaped differently - like the big fish - rather than zig-zagged, or more colorful, something.
ReplyDelete