Thursday, January 22, 2009

A new work, begun today . . . this is the 'easy' stuff . . .

4 comments:

Diane Wright said...

You make it look easy Terry! I love your landscapes!

What is your technique to making these beautiful dark foliage backgrounds?

I can't seem to do dark enough and when I do, the dark areas seem flat. Your dark sections have so much depth to them.

Any pointers would be appreciated!

Diane

Terry Miller said...

Hey Diane,
Funny you should ask! As I was working yesterday afternoon, I was thinking to myself that it might be an interesting thing to show a progression of how I work in dark areas and give them depth, as I have been asked this very question numberous times before.
Since I have sort of finished the areas of dark on this particular piece, I am not sure I can explain the process, but think I will make an effort sometime soon, to show a progression of images of just how I work an area like this, giving depth and movement and such. So, stay tuned and I promise to try and give you a reasonable explanation.
In the meantime, I will say that just as I have talked about in the past, I work in layers, overdrawing espeically in dark areas like this one, slowly building up the darks and with final touches of very soft, either B or 2B highlights if you will, that emphasize the separations between lighter leafy areas from darker shadowy depths.
I will try and illustrate this with images on a sample work once this piece is done.

Diane Wright said...

Thanks Terry! I will definitely stay tuned for your illustration and explanation!

In the meantime...I will sit back and enjoy your progression on this piece.

Diane

Stephanie said...

*Grabs a cup of coffee to watch this one, and catch the lesson on darks.*