Slowvember, slow start.
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I try to do slowvember in between a busy project, because I really really want to paint with water color.
I chose to work with my favorite inktober painting from this year. I was eager to play with the color, so I just tried out a few color study. I will try to keep the palette simple since this is my first time trying painting in water color.Something about the compostion is a bit off in the original painting. SO I did a couple different comps on paper, but ended up with the one which are quite similar to the orignial, but moved the girl a bit away from the edge of the image, and get a better silhouette of the building she is in. I will play more with comps before I commit to it.
I also thought of adding other spectators in the image, such as other children seeing the girl interacting with the dragon from rooftops and windows - which would change the story of the image quite a bit.
The story has something to do with having the courage of meeting unknowns(the dragon). The girl is brave. The dragon is mysterious. The rest I have not figured out yet.
Any thoughts so far?
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Wow it looks awesome. I like the 1 color study, maybe because it is more cool, cold in color.
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@xin-li I also like the cooler coloring. Nice work.
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@MichaelaH thank you. I might try a couple more with cool overall color.
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Yes I think bringing the girl in away from the edge is a good idea. I really like the color study #1 colors. looks great!
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@xin-li Oh wow! This is gonna look awesome. I'm a big fan of the 2nd colour study
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Thank you for the feedback so far.
Still working on the composition with thumbnails, and gathered a bunch of night scene illustration for color reference.Hope I will be able to start painting by this weekend.
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@xin-li #1 is my favorite--it's going to be beautiful
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@xin-li this is gorgeous! I like the first color study. Itβs so magical.
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@xin-li I love this! I also really love the first colour study, it will look amazing!
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@anya-macleod @BichonBistro @Pamela-Fraley thank you for weighing in your thoughts. I hope I will be able to get similar color with water color. I don't have much experence, but very excited to get time to paint.
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My progress of slowvember piece is very very slow due to have to stay at home with my sick child for a couple of days. I managed to redraw the sketch for this piece while she napped. I am almost ready to paint. Any critiques before I move further with the painting? I flipped the sketch, because I kind of imagining this could be a spread in a book. I also wanted to have a clearer silhouette for the girl. I hope the new sketch has achieved that.
I do not know if I am able to make it to the deadline, but I figured it is a good place to start painting with watercolor.
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@xin-li I really love your concept and style in this piece (as usual), but I think the read is not quite as clear as before and because of that I don't see the girl right away. Some of it, no doubt, is that you're still at the sketch stage for this new composition. But part of it may be that in the first versions, the taller building highlighted her as the focal point. In theory, I totally get why putting her against the moon would provide a clearer silhouette. But the building itself could still do some of the work of directing our focus: Maybe her building should still be taller, have a spire, or some such thing? She's about the same size as some of the other spires and chimneys. Just thinking aloud...
Can't wait to see how this turns out! And great that you can do this and take care of your child/children too
. It takes a lot of determination!
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@LauraA Thank you so much for the critic. I see what you mean. I will try to make the building she stands on a bit higher, and maybe work on the silhouette of her a bit more.
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@xin-li Nice! The silhouette of the girl is certainly clearer now. As to the flippiness of the image, I could take it either way. Depends on whether your audience to go 'oh a girl - what's she pointing at? - oh neat majestic smoke creatures' or 'neat majestic smoke creatures - what are they looking at? - oh a little girl'.
WHether you finish it for slowvember or not this is gonna be beautiful!
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@xin-li I hope you get to finish and enter. The new composition is wonderful.
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Did some adjustments on composition. Thanks to @LauraA 's critique. I think I am getting really close to start painting :-).
@Braden-Hallett It is really interesting about what you said about flipping the image. As you said, it changes the perspective of the story a bit, very sable. It gets me to think.
@JoannaH thank you for the encouragement.
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@xin-li Yesss!!!! Really clear now. You've got it!
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@LauraA thank you, Laura
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Ready to paint tomorrow.