Giant chips – done!(ish)

The end of the term is fast approaching, and with it a need to smash out my photorealistic chips. As with any project, it’s hard to know when to call something “done”, but this term, with a deadline looming, I’m drawing a line in the sand for now.

This project has felt a lot like software development to me. The first 20% of time was spent on 80% of the work. The remaining 80% of time is spent on the 20% – the details, details details.

This thing is as big as me.

After watching some work in progress videos by various photorealists, I realised that I was missing a critical weapon in my arsenal – a tiny watercolour brush. Bloody hell though, working with a watercolour brush in oils is an exercise in patience. The bristles are so flimsy (compared to something like hog hair) that a fair whack of oil is needed to get a workable flow. It is amazing for sign-writing though, and I spent hours and hours re-working all my lettering with much glee.

Mmm. Crisp (pun intended).

The challenge then becomes determining just what to crisp up, and what to leave alone. It’s so tempting to go and crisp up everything! I had to restrain myself, and stay true to the photograph.

Here’s my progress week to week, updated with the last month’s worth of work:

A comparable project time-wise was Himeji gardens, done in first year painting. The focus was on soft edges. Looking at them side by side though, I I feel I’ve improved as a painter. I also feel like the giant chips are more “me”.

All in all I’ve really enjoyed tonal realism painting this semester, and look forward to next semester, where we’ll be working on composing a painting from multiple sources – super excited about that one!

3 thoughts on “Giant chips – done!(ish)

  1. Fabulous chips!
    I used bright brushes on my power station to do details, have you tried them? They are great for getting the tiny little lines etc, found them excellent, like a thin, short flat.

    1. Hey Tash! Sorry for not seeing your comment until now! Oh, I didn’t know they were called bright brushes – I do have a thin short flat brush but I might have to see yours one day! 🙂

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