Giraffe Painting Revisited
Lofty Attitude (tentative title)
Oil pastel on handmade paper
approximately 10 1/2 x 13″
More Unfinished Business
Here’s another painting that has been sitting around unfinished. Since I’m lacking the enthusiam to start anything more complicated (say as in finish up my rooster) I am picking away at the few pieces that just needed some tweaking.
Because the composition seemed a little too simple, I had painted some acacia branches in. The acacia added an element but also became distracting. So I promptly scraped them back out and am left with just the giraffe. (Apologies for not taking any photos with the branches. I just didn’t think to do it.)
So my plan is to order the frame and see how it looks after framing. I have a feeling that the framing will finish it out nicely. If not, I may stick in those thorny acacia branches after all. (Notice I’ve yet to sign it yet.)
This is excellent. I see what you mean, the acacia branches would make sense. Maybe you just hadn’t put them in exactly the right place in the composition the first time around — wish you had snapped a photo while they were in.
It’s a joy oil pastels are so workable though. Which ones have you used on this painting? Holbein? Sennelier? Neopastel? A combination?
Robert
You can scrape off bits you don’t like?
I like this painting just as it is. Is it the way the photo is taken or does it have a soft colour in the background anyway?
Love the giraffe’s colors and look. I can see how some foliage would add a context, yet I can also see that it may be difficult to place without becoming distracting. I have never tried scraping back to that degree. Another great title!
Thanks for the comments everyone. It is helpful for me and gets me to thinking about it from different perspectives.
I was able to scrape off stuff because I already had the soft blue color underneath. So when I removed the acacia, it scraped down to the blue. Had the acacia gone on first it wouldn’t have come off completely.
I have on more than one occasion put down white first as sort of a barrier, tried whatever I was wanted to try and then if it didn’t work was able to scrape it off without too much staining of the substrate board underneath. This was not always a successful method.
I like the idea of the plant life but just haven’t been able to execute it to my satisfaction. I may try again however.
BTW the acacia was in the upper right hand corner. It had been part of my plan from the beginning otherwise I might have placed my giraffe a little differently.