Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Putting the Custom back in Customer - Part 3 of 6

Next up in the commission series - this daunting landscape of a small city in Italy. Anyone recognize it? It reminds me of Florence but I don't see that iconic dome or any sign of the Arno River. 

My client decided that this photo would be another of the 3 to be recreated in black and white, no watercolor. First, I de-saturated the image so I wouldn't be distracted by the color and applied a grid to the picture. As before, this helps me digest the scene in smaller bites and keep the proportions in order.


I used photoshop to tweak the levels of dark to light, this helped me see more detail by exaggerating the lights and darks.

I again applied a light pencil grid to my paper and dove right in. 


Here's a close-up:




Last step, applying layers of ink, thinned with water, to create volume. Here's the final image, cropped to 9"x12." There wasn't a singular focal point in the original photo, it was rather flat, so it was a challenge. Still, I think the end result is lively and interesting. What do you think?



Next up, the Italian country side in living color……..

2 comments:

zan said...

excellent execution and delivery !!!
true there is no one focal point, though your use of line and shading create a multitude of micro focal points that keeps the eye moving within the piece... making/keeping it exciting. the original photo has nothing on your rendering!
...rather Escheresque.

sandy salzman said...

I love your work Victoria, and admire your talent. I especially enjoy these posts where you show and explain the process you go through to create your works of art. Having no artistic ability at all, I would have no idea how to even begin to do what you do. Beautiful!