Today I finished my koi drawing in the midst of Hurricane Irene which was, fortunately, downgraded to a tropical storm by the time it hit Rhode Island. We lost power early this morning and have been without it all day. The nice part about being a colored pencil artist is that I can still work without power (as long as it is daylight!) all I need are my set of pencils and battery operated pencil sharpener. Over the last few weeks, I fussed with the colors and patterns on this piece, toning down the bright colors in the water so they wouldn't overpower or detract from the koi fish. My favorite fish is the large white one on top although another artist who saw the work in progress liked the two at the bottom because they had more contrast. I was hoping to create some of the koi with more detail than others and all of them to have an abstract quality. I'm happy with it and ready to finish it and deliver it to the gallery this week.
I'll spend the rest of the day going through photos and notes, trying to decide on my next piece. I prefer to have the next piece in mind before I even finish the current one but preoccupations with the coming hurricane this week kept me from that. We were really worried about how hard we were going to be hit and watched the Weather Channel every day. However, it's difficult for any of the weather authorities to predict the path until it's almost here!
Kendra, I love the abstract quality of this piece! We've been glued to the Weather channel for the last few days, too. Nothing like what it was supposed to be, thank goodness. Just watched branches fall from the large pine trees in our neighbors yard across from us for most of the day. Lost power for about an hour. That was it. Look forward to your next piece. Another koi?
ReplyDeleteLove how you rendered the water and I'll say that my favourite fish is the orange-ish coloured one as I like the colour orange! :-) They all look great.
ReplyDeleteSo glad to hear that the storm hasn't been as bad as it might have been. I wondered if all would be okay with you so I am glad that you wrote a post.
There are some wonderful areas of 'mystery' in this artwork that I find quite appealing, Kendra.
ReplyDeleteHi Kendra,
ReplyDeleteI wish you would put these in bigger. They are hard to see. But they look great from what I can see. (It is probably a good idea so they aren't stolen.)
It is interesting because the photo of it in progress below looks like a whole other picture. I like both. They both have totally different feelings to them. (Of course they are the same.) Did you work from a photo?
Appreciate the comments and suggestions! Jenn, I did work from several photos which I put together in the composition. I wasn't sure how large to post this image because it is such a long vertical. Perhaps I could have enlarged it a little I was also working on my laptop and the images on my screen often look better than they do once they are posted. It may be a bit fuzzy.
ReplyDeleteEverything is back to normal now, thank goodness. Power came back on yesterday.