I looked at various rope pictures and came upon a photograph that my husband had taken years ago. With his permission (I never paint someone else's photo without asking), I decided to try to paint it.
It's a bowline knot - fun to tie. I find myself transported back to camp where I learned to tie it with a story. You take the rope and make a lake. (Just twist a loop) Then take the end of the rope which becomes a snake. The snakes comes out of the lake, goes around the tree and back into the lake. Then you pull on the head and the tail. Voila - bowline knot!
Enough of that... I began to sketch with pencil. The end of the line (rope) was very frayed.
Then I added some light watercolor washes leaving the frayed part until later.
Next step - add the frayed end, a little more definition on the line and some color in the background.
Then I took it to class for critique... Well...we began a discussion about where the light was coming from. The line shows the light coming from the right side. Wouldn't it be better coming from the top left? Then the frayed end would have more impact. They also thought the fray should be more prominent.
I took it home and washed some of it out, added more fray and defined the end a little more. Changing the light source was a little trickier. I switched to some of my pastels. So now the light side of the line is on the left. It's more yellow on the top left. Back to class the following week...
The suggestion then was darken the bottom right. The contrast of the opposite corners would help.
I did it and was really sorry...something happened that threw it all off for me. Having spent so much time with this knot, was there a way to salvage this?
Ah, yes...crop! I could get rid of some of that boring dark corner... It's now an 11x14 instead of a 16x20.
Why Knot?
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| "Why Knot?" 11x14 watercolor & pastel $100 |
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