I enjoyed the strongly beveled shapes that dramatized form. Softening and generalizing values to emphasize space I then concentrated on the head or face. To many paintings I have ruined by not giving proper attention to all the small detailed shapes and anatomy of the head.
In addition to this I had the sharp shadowing from the trees casting shadows across the models face and figure. It became apparent to me that it was moonlight and I had to pay special attention to what was happening in the forms of the background tree lighting and the cast shadows of the barn next to her.
I realized I needed to bring something in to the foreground by her hand and fence so I took a photo of the image back into PhotoShop to experiment with different images and colors that would work best there. I found a few different flower images I liked, made a black and white print out and went back to painting. With some of the subtle greens in the foliage I was adding I also added some warmer tones in the flowers. Then being careful to subtly add blues glazes, soft yellows into the painting to further dramatize space with the use of warm and cool colors.
I wanted it to look like what things look like when I am outside in the moonlit evening. This you cannot capture in a camera, you have to create it. Things seem so hard for my eye to see and define in the dark. Greys abound and the light seems to dance everywhere and you can feel subtle tints of color. It is almost like your eye sees in some kind of TV static fuzziness.
I was not sure how to handle the model coloration, so another photo and back to PhotoShop to play with what color and how much of it and where it was needed to warm up the models flesh, bring her forward in space and not leave her in anemic, deathly blue tone.
Satisfied with my exploration in Photoshop I wet back to painting to capture my vision in paint.
Workshop: How to use the Digital Image in paining, See workshop page of website
