A Splash of Color

Archive for the ‘figurative’ Category

We had gone for a cycling tour with a couple of friends a few weeks ago, along a picturesque route dotted with small fresh water lakes in the Rhine-Neckar region. Summer is finally truly here and we could go out leaving the jackets/umbrellas at home. Phew! And here I was thinking we are going to go from winter to winter bypassing everything in between :0 Wherever you go in Germany, a water body is never too far away and that’s what I love about this country. In my view this holds good for Europe as a whole, the parts that I have visited. Be it a river flowing right in the middle of a bustling city or a lake out of nowhere. We managed to cycle about 40 kms, which is not much but a great deal for us considering how unfit we are! My husband and I rarely put ourselves through any form of exercise and we were quite surprised that we could cycle so much, that too with the daughter sitting behind us alternately. It became too unbearably hot in the afternoon forcing us to call it a day.

During the ride we stopped by this lake for a while, just to relax for sometime and munch on some snacks. There were hordes of people by the lake, some taking a swim, some just reading a book, introducing little children to the water and so on. A visual delight for the figure painter I’d say. I clicked a few references and this is the first one. I have one more in progress, and hope to do a few more.

Reading by the lake
Acrylics on Canvas, 10 by 10 inches.
© 2010 Nithya Swaminathan
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I still have not mustered the courage to do the figure with the knife. Just did an initial layer with the knife for the woman, and later switched to the brush. Makes life a lot simpler that way. The surroundings though are done entirely with the knife and I hope to slowly get to a stage where my figures also are done with the knife.

There are some things that I tried with this one – a square canvas to start with. I haven’t painted on a square canvas after my apples series more than a year ago. I felt it would suit this image and just went ahead. Also, usually I paint the sides with a neutral color – black or brown. This time I thought black would look ridiculous with this canvas, as it has such bright colors. So went ahead and continued the painting itself to the sides too. Too bad that I did not take a photo from the side, will do it tomorrow. The painting flows over to the sides too and doesn’t look odd even when hung without a frame.

I quite like how it turned out Let me know what you think.

After painting some legs, I think it is time to do a whole body again. So I am getting back to my belly dancers and capturing movement. One of the ideas that I employ in this series is a haphazard background. I wanted the background with large amounts of red, as it is fire and passion that I want to portray. By making the background rather hazy and with very visible broad brushstrokes, it gives a better sense of movement than what a still background would do. And painting the background is one of the most exciting part of the series, as I just play around to my heart’s content and keep applying color as wild as I can.

Break Free
Acrylics on Canvas, 16 x 20 inches
© Nithya Swaminathan

This painting is based on a reference from Flickr photographer Adelita Chohfi. With this reference, it was love at first sight, and the flowing hair on her face is what did it for me. The idea of depicting complete freedom and happiness, without showing even a bit of the face or a smile was a fascinating idea and  I just *had* to paint this one.

The mood of the painting, and the title, all represent very precisely the kind of mood that I was in while doing this. Over the last few days, I was obsessing over a self portrait, which turned out to be a disaster. I cannot explain how depressed I was with it. I thought I gave it a decent start, but then it turned out really bad. I tweaked it to no end, spent a lot of time and energy tweaking it but it was a lost cause. I did complete the painting and post it on WetCanvas, where people did have nice things to say. But I am totally bugged and will not be posting it elsewhere. Anyway, getting back to this painting, this was the perfect way to unwind for me, after a portrait where I harped so much about the details. This one is so exactly opposite, no detail whatsoever, and is all about mood. I literally did leave myself loose and had maximum fun painting this. And I really like how it turned out.

Your feedback is welcome!

Tango #6
Acrylics on board, 5 x 7 inches
© Nithya Swaminathan

Tango #5
Acrylics on board, 5 x 7 inches
© Nithya Swaminathan

This one’s my favorite from the Tango paintings, what do you think? I loved painting it and like how the lady’s legs turned out. Your feedback is welcome!

Tango #4
Acrylics on board, 5 x 7 inches
© Nithya Swaminathan

These Tango paintings are based on the references from a dancer couple on Flickr. They are a real life couple who also perform together. And when I requested their permission to paint these photos, they were so gracious and allowed me to. In the first couple of paintings, I spent about 75% of the time doing the lady’s legs and hardly spent any time on the guy’s. So a friend told me that they are not as good as the woman’s legs. And so I tried slowing down a bit and added a little more detail to the guy’s legs as well. Your feedback is welcome!

Tango #3
Acrylics on board, 5 x 7 inches
© Nithya Swaminathan

I had picked up a set of moulding/structure paste recently, just to see what was possible with it. The set also had a bottle of gold, which I thought could be used in these dancer shoes. I love the effect it gives. The shoes are done in burnt umber, yellow ochre and white and finally a touch of gold here and there. It looks as though they are fully done in gold.:) Your feedback is welcome!

Tango #2
Acrylics on board, 5 x 7 inches
© Nithya Swaminathan

Last year, I did a series of belly dancers. The main idea of the series was to capture movement, and the passion of a dancer without focusing on the facial expression. The series relies only on capturing the body language. It was a series I thoroughly enjoyed, and it also struck me that I could extend it to some other forms of dance as well. I had some references of Tango that I had saved several months ago. If I had painted them then, I’d have done them in full, but now it occurred that I could just paint the legs and see if I could still capture the attitude.:) And so I decided to do a series of just legs in various Tango postures.

Tango #1
Acrylics on board, 5 x 7 inches
© Nithya Swaminathan

With these paintings I am also getting back to the brush. Boy it’s been quite long! I do miss my knife a great deal though. Let me know what you think of this one.

And then, I turned to my ever dependable dad for pointing out the issues in the portrait. Not that I could not do it on my own, but I firmly believe a fresh look helps, more so if its from him. As expected, after I mailed my daughter’s portrait version 1.0 to my dad, I got some fabulous suggestions. I got some great suggestions also from my brother, who is a very gifted artist unfortunately with no online presence! My dad pointed out n number of places where I could improve, and finally said that I have to satisfy myself first. I think he nailed it with that one sentence. I wasn’t even close to being satisfied with the previous version. A mother’s obsession is too strong and I just could not settle with the earlier version. Not that I am greatly satisfied now, I am certainly not. But I feel I am almost there. Here is how the portrait looks now.

Chasing my Rainbow
Acrylics on Canvas, 16 * 20 inches
Copyright Nithya Swaminathan

Some of the things that I have done -

1. I have added more darks around the corner of her lips to bring in more depth to the smile.
2. I have softened the area where the neck meets the chest, earlier it was too hard edged and I think it looks better now. So instead of looking like an attachment on the chest, the neck looks like a continuation.
3. Softened the background a bit. One thing people at WetCanvas and my brother pointed out was that the background was kinda competing with the image. Since it could hinder with the outline of the face I could not do much, but I have greyed it down as much as I could.
4. I have slightly increased the size of the hand and palm. I am not even sure if it can be seen, but I made the hand a little thicker.
5. I have redone most of the hair, as I felt it was too artificial looking. It looked like it was pasted on her head, I have tried my best to correct it. I worked a little patiently, strand by strand!
6. Oh, and most importantly, I have painted over and repainted her left eye (the one closer to the viewer) at least 6 times. The eyebrows looked terrible before, like caterpillars! I tried to soften them as much as possible. And the whole eye was done over and over again. That’s why I love and hate Acrylics. While I love it for the flexibility, I sincerely believe I’d take much more care if it were an unforgiving medium. So it is not Acrylics that I hate, it is myself actually. Huh!