Getting out of the Muddy stage.

This is the latest shot completed for the film! I'm really happy with how this ended up looking but there was a bit of a struggle to get there. I am not the fastest of painters and it often takes me quite a while to get things to a point where I start to appreciate it.

For this piece I think I was expecting results to show earlier than they did. Getting a painting out of a muddy and messy state into something more cleaned up with defined lighting and pleasant colours is definitely a process. There is so much focus on speed in paintings on social media and while I understand that it comes from being able to deliver good looking results on tight deadlines, we mustn't always expect everything to be done within a couple of hours. Some shots will require a lot of attention and dedication before they look like anything.

I think we all as artists run into this problem of questioning the quality of the work as we are making it. I tend to forget the fact that more time put into the painting often results in a better looking product. It's a constant problem solving where things will look a bit shit in the beginning. Telling myself that it’s part of the process will be the challenge for the next shot.

Here you can see the stages it went through. Getting out of the monochromatic green phase did a lot for the overall image. Also widening the value range so that there are defined shadow shapes and clear highlights will instantly make the image read.

Another tricky part with this shot was that I had to keep a pretty clear layer management as this was to be projected onto a 3D geometry to create the camera move you can see in the final product. That slows down my workflow even more when painting as I have to keep remembering to paint certain elements on specific layers.

I reference these shots from walks I take. Whenever I see a certain quality in nature I like, I capture it to have it available when painting. This shot was compositionally just imagined but I kept looking at some shots I took with my phone a week ago, while out hiking with Jana.

I think expecting things to come easy in art is never that realistic. My favourite paintings are always the ones I went an extra mile for and spent those long hours on.

Knowing when a piece is done is for another day...