Put in Some Drama
In this exercise I want you to add some conflict or tension to your compositions. This will represent a challenge to those who have never stepped out of the comfort zone of copying a photograph. Think about a way to arrange your shapes, change the values, colors or proportions to make relationship between them more tense or dynamic. I don’t think you have to imply a crazy killer behind the door but that’s an idea worth pursuing. All I really want you to do is make the relationships more dramatic. Look at a copy of the painting by Andrew Wyeth, “Christina’s World” and notice how the space between the figure and the house creates tension and struggle. If the distance is reduced will the painting tell the same story? So take a couple of simple shapes and arrange them into a composition that really has some tension. You will notice in my three examples I have a very dramatic generic seascape, then a lobster boat working around some cliffs, and lastly a lobster boat working dangerously close to a rocky cliff in very rough water. Give it a try.
These are wonderful–it’s hard even attempting to keep up with your suggestions!
Your water is FANTASTIC! You can actually feel it’s movement and weight.
What impressive watercolors !!! How much movement !! They seem spectacular to me. Thanks Steve