March 28, 2012

Large Painting - Pain in the Neck

Many years ago when I first attempted to paint on a large canvas, I was reminded to adjust the easel up and down so I'd be painting at the same height instead of bending over or reaching up to get to the top and bottom of the canvas. Forgot all that today -- with the top of the canvas well above my head, I was reaching up to paint. Serious neck pain!

I took a break from this still-unfinished painting and went to weed the garden.... what was I thinking? It doesn't work to spend a lot of time bending over to make up for all that reaching up -- it just adds to the ways you can be reminded to stretch.

This piece is 48 x 36 and I'm working on it from a smaller sketch I did onsite a couple of weeks ago. The yellow banded reflection in the glass actually should say "Flippin' Pizza" in quite readable reverse type.. but I decided to edit that out. I do have more work to do on the (imaginary -- it's not there really) store name above the door and do some more thinking about how much or how little I want to define the people. I'm also sure that the shadow on the steps is the wrong color for the painting, so I'll play with that too before I get this done.

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