So! Lately I have been working on a new style of illustrating. Most of my paintings to date have been highly detailed, meticulously rendered, very realistic images where every inch of paper is belabored over to achieve an evenly finished surface. The end result is a painting that glows, but it is not a terribly efficient or cost effective way of painting because of the number of hours that goes into the work. With realism, it can also difficult to manipulate forms and draw emphasis to certain things because of how tied I become to my photo reference. Sometimes there are things that I want to distort, and worlds that I need to abbreviate. Sometimes I have ideas that I want to record a in under 40 hours, or jobs that I need to finish quickly in order to keep prices low. Therefore, I have been experimenting with a new, simpler style of watercolor painting.
I am hoping that this new style will free up my imagination and allow me to compose a picture with more attention on its design and less attention on the reality of the photo source. I also would like to incorporate more fashion illustration into my portfolio, and I think an abbreviated style will let me do that. The idea is that I need to paint a lot of things that do not exist, or do not yet exist. But to paint these things realistically is difficult because I do not have enough visual information to do them justice. A more stylized approach doesn’t require as much visual information, and will let me record more things from my mind in a believable way.
Anyhow, this painting is very much an experiment. I like how it came out but I do think that this style will change and evolve as I work at it more. Right now I am very open to the opinions of others and advice on where to take things with my next piece. I think that I jumped a great distance from my usual style in this piece, and though I like where it went, I think I need to reign it back in just a little with future works. I am hoping to have a whole new stylized body of work by the new year.
Your comments are encouraged! Thanks for reading!
