I recently finished Painted Palouse, a large landscape digital painting for The Missus' aunt. At a size of 36" x 36", it took me a couple weeks to finish, but we're all very happy with it, especially Auntie.
Our happy Auntie with her new painting
It's a challenge painting large digitally. My Wacom pen display is 4k, but when trying to paint at 100% size, there's not a lot of real estate showing on screen. As a result I found I had to do a lot of jumping from small to large in order to see how everything worked as I was painting.
In the end, she loved it. Or at least she said she loved it.
I'm not sure if she was just being polite.
The initial sketch for Painted Palouse
Although I'm pretty satisfied with the final, I told Auntie, "I appreciate you being so complimentary regarding the painting. It's a decent work, but I have to say that when I look at any of my paintings, I mainly focus on the areas that could use some improvement."
She asked me where those areas were on this painting.
"That's for me to keep to myself. I've said too much already."
The process of this painting began with a rough, 9" x 9" sketch. I did four or five sketches of different scenes and let her pick her favorite, and she picked Painted Palouse.
My painting started the next day.
The final image is a big improvement on the initial sketch. That's the way it's supposed to work! And any imperfections that I might obsess upon are inconsequential when the whole painting is taken into account.
Here's a clear version of the final image.
Let me know what you think in the comments.
Painted Palouse (digital, 36x36)
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About the Author
Topdog is Steve Merryman, a retired graphic designer, illustrator, and curmudgeon-in-training. Steve can often be found working on a portrait commission or some other artwork. Steve fills his days by painting, writing, shootin' guns, cuttin' trees, hiking with his dogs, and shaking his head at world events, all while searching for the perfect cheeseburger. He is occasionally without pants.
Comments 3
Author
I need to figure out how to hide the form and author info at the bottom. It never looks right in WordPress.com/reader. They look perfect on my site, however. So if you want the REAL sigmadog experience, visit the actual blog post. Cheers!
I’m not an artist so I can’t see the faults. It’s beautiful. Auntie has a good eye for a work well done.
Author
Thank you, Sir!