& the Dish Ran Away with the Spoon

& the Dish Ran Away with the Spoon

well that's the title anyway. :-)

This was a lot of fun... albeit time consuming for such a small piece. There is so much going on in that little square. I almost think it doesn't work, its so busy... but hopefully I managed to pull it together by lumping values together (sort of like Hopper did) and simplifying where needed. I think you can see what I mean more in the .jpg below where I used the cutout function in Photoshop Elements to lump the major value shapes in the piece. I used the shadow down the center of the cloth as a dark shape leading the eye up and framing around the coffee cup... which actually mimics that long black shape in Hopper's Chop Suey picture on the table.

One of the most fun things about this was getting to know Hopper's painting better. He used objects, color shapes etc pointing this way and that all over the picture, which I tried to mimic in my drawing. Other things I mimicked was the writing on the cup with the sign in the painting, and the resting areas of the white of the table. I'm sure there's more - and you can let me know!

I had to change the Hopper painting a little. The Chop Suey painting has two focal points - the women in front and the couple in the back... well when you add my focal point of the coffee cup and spoon - that's just way too many focal points... so I decided to fade in the couple in the back of the Hopper painting instead of having them stand out... the same thing for the big yellow square next to the girls on the right... I just made it stand out a little less to keep the focus on the girls.

& I just got back from getting a nifty matt cut around the corner at Creative Encounters so when it is at the Silent Auction (during the CPSA Convention) it will look nice and tidy. They helped me pick a matt and showed me this green core black matt... which seemed to work. It didn't occur to me until I got back from the studio how the green core really made the green lines on the cup and saucer really work!


Wednesday is the last day of school for the kids which means my studio will stay mostly empty for a while. If anyone want to see/reach me just email me and I can come in. As far as blog posts go... they will be fewer and farther in between probably for the summer and may include more sketches (from our trip to Maui we are taking in July), but don't worry I'll be back in full force in the fall for sure... and will be here. If you haven't subscribed or "followed" me yet nows the time to signup so you won't miss when I start posting more again.