Paint Myself Into A Corner

I was at this pavilion like structure.  It had two opposing arcs of pillars, standing under a roof, otherwise exposed to the elements.

When the sun tilted to one side of the pavilion, it casted long shadows of these pillars across the mosaic pavilion floor, ending up on the opposite side..

The shadows crept towards the opposite pillars, and just happened to sandwich in between the cement masses; juxtaposing amongst the lit floor and the reflected shades of gray.

The pattern of thin, rigid metal inserts of the pillars contrasting with the heavy cylinders, staged by bands of shadows and light, garnished with rows of small mosaic tiles on the floor.

I found this composition alluring

Since I had so much fun painting my roof tops, another architectural themed painting, I made this my next project.

First I sketched the composition.  This painting is made up of geometric shapes and I wanted to get the position and relative size of the different elements right.  I also needed to demonstrate the weight of the pillars with convincing strokes and meticulous lines.  I could not afford to leave the whole thing to free hand brushstrokes.

Notice that I had planned to paint the mosaic tile floor too.  I thought the contrast between the stout pillars and the curvy rows of tiny mosaic tiles would be interesting.

This is how the painting looked after the initial playing with the gray scale.

I liked my foundation work.  I also felt that the light and dark was so powerful, that it would smother my attempt to paint in the rows of mosaic tiles on the floor.  I believe the tiny squares would take away from the emotional content.  It is as if I am looking at a beautiful bikini cladded model and I have to divert my attention to the glued on art nails.  Simply redundant!

Since I was using the semi-sized Xuan again, I took my time to paint, using the Ji Mo technique ( ink layering).  Each subsequent layer receded further from the illuminated edge of the pillar, giving it a rounded  cylindrical appearance.  I actually used a straight edge to guide my brush; forming these convincing lines.

As I was building up the painting, my focus somehow migrated away from toying with the light values, but gradually directed towards the corner formed by the ceiling beams on the upper right side.
It was as if all the pillars and things were just the guiding elements on a fishbone UHF antenna.  They just draw in and direct the signal to the collecting element.  In this case, the corner.

There was no rational explanation, but the more I wanted to not look at that corner, the more I was drawn to look at it.  Could my OCD be flaring up again?

I just went with the flow; followed my heart.  I accentuated the lines culminating in that corner and played up the shadows.  My attention could now follow the pillars, and end up in THE CORNER.

I had painted myself into a corner.

Better Roof Tops

With no hesitation I went for my second attempt at roof tops with aplomb. Knowing what was wrong with my first trial should make this child's play. Indeed it was.

It didn't take me long to lay down my patches.  I added windows to the houses on the left, now that there was room to reveal them.  The mitred roofs looked fine.  This should be easy.

 

 

 

It had different shades of black.  The roofs were a little more animated with texture.  The painting still carried an air of geometric patterns, but it wasn't cold.

 

 

Somehow things still did not seem right.  I didn't want to be agnosonosic, but I really had no clue. I just trusted my instincts.

 

Then it dawned on me.

 

 I amended my mistakes on the left, but I introduced them on the right side now. I had unwittingly painted the houses on a staggered line.  In other words, the houses on the right were not along the same curbside.  This was all due to the extended eaves.

 

 

 

 

 

I shouldn't have drawn eaves the same length on both sides of the roof.  If these houses were truly parallel to us, then the left eave and the left truss ( closest to us ) would be much longer than the other.  They should have followed the red lines in my diagram.

 

I didn't want to chalk this up as something that was not emphasized in typical Chinese brush painting.  Perspective was really not a vital player.  So this exercise had been most enlightening for me.

 

As I was ruminating all these tidbits of information, my thought process about this painting changed.

My original intent was to depict a narrow street amongst rooftops.  My initial zeal was triggered by the repeating patterns.  By now I know the painting by heart, especially with the composition.  Slowly a feeling emerged.  A maturation process was taking place. 

 

Then I left the room.  Perhaps to allow my thoughts to brew. 

 

It was evening when I returned and I had not switched on the lights yet so the room was dim, but not dark.  I glanced at my Xuan, which I had started to sketch in the blocks.  This painting was no longer about geometric shapes, although they were still integral parts.  The painting was about a silence of the night.  Not desolate, but calm.  Not abandoned, but at peace.

 

I emboldened myself with intense, decisive strokes.  The huge black patches now adorned with texture, barely visible but very discernible.  I did this in between flipping on and off the light switch just to feel the lighting effect.  Little horizontal lines reminiscing of clothing bamboo rods ( instead of clothing lines, apartment dwellers have bamboo staffs hoisted outdoors to hang clothes with)  helped to form a connection between the 2 sides of this painting.

 

 

 

This one I can  be proud of.  I delighted in the metamorphosis of this painting, and it happened serendipitously.

 







 

 



Roof Tops

I have this image of an aerial view of a narrow street, flanked by roof tops.

These roof tops would be rather uniform in shape and size.  The variety one might encounter in a row house district or housing projects.  The tarry roofs contrasting with white sidings of buildings should form an interesting composition.  I thought.

I proceeded to lay down my framework.

I decided to install flat roof dormers ( or sky lights ) onto my structures to increase the facets on my painting.  I envisioned the added surface angles would make the painting less flat in appearance.   A gable fronted dormer would be nice too;  the caveat was I couldn't sort out the various surfaces with my brush.

I was not unhappy with the resulting painting.  I did this work on my semi-sized paper, with a big brush such that when applied side-tip I could cover a large swath of ground.  I wanted to be able to still discern some semblance of a brushstroke, albeit in this quasi contemporary, geometric rendition.

After I had time to digest my initial effort, I started seeing my mistakes.

1. The roof truss of these two buildings should not be on the same straight line and should be staggered as per the red lines.  It would have to be one single roof with no separation between the 2 buildings if the truss was joined.

2. The compound angle line of the two mitred  roofs were wrong.  The line joining the 2 roof surfaces should extend from the apex of the roof  ridge  to the bottom fascia, as indicated by the red line.  The way it was portrayed, midspan on a roof, was not possible.

3.  The first building on the right seemed to have a 7 o'clock orientation vs the 8 or 9 o'clock on the rest.  One could rationalize by saying the street took a turn there.  But I knew better.

Back to the drawing board.