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Impasto progression
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Message
Posted
I’ve seen a wonderful impasto painting but unfortunately it’s a little beyond my spending means. So I’ve resolved to recreate it myself. This was my original reason for beginning painting.
Anyway I’m three pieces in and would be interested in people’s suggestions for exercises for progression.
Here are my first three attempts in order.
Posted
Well - while I'm sure you could gain any number of suggestions, my serious recommendation to you is just to keep on keeping on: always try to balance foreground against background, since otherwise you sacrifice depth - that doesn't mean abandoning impasto, but does mean balancing your colours - desaturated, inclining to blue/violet in the distance, hotter colour as we come forward. I'd also make the distant features thinner - you can still use impasto, but it's a very common mistake to keep the same depth of impasto equal through the painting: it CAN work, but only if you've acquired deep expertise - it can work with still life (see R.O. Dunlop) but tends not to in landscapes - they don't hit the eye with equal force (unless maybe we've tried LSD....).
Of the above, I think your first painting works the best, and conveys the immediacy of the image confronting you - I think the impact is reduced in the next two, but - hey: we all see things differently!
Posted
I’m a bit late here but what Robert says about depth etc is very relevant. The fourth one down, for instance, would benefit from gradation, otherwise there’s no focal point. The sky is competing with the sea…I would lose a lot of the impasto in the sky, especially near the horizon, it’s too “ busy”.
Posted
I like them. As someone said. Just keep doing what you're doing. You'll find you come across a style. In the end it doesn't need to be what you originally saw and wanted to copy. You're brain will tell you to stop. You're instinct will tell you not a line more. Cause that line, when you step back and look, will jump out at you. Not necessarily everyone else. But you'll see it. If you're instinct tells you, "Done." You go with that.
Like I said, I like them. Especially that moon one.