ONE MORE FOR THE WORKSHOP!

MIKE HENDERSON ELONGATED

MIKE HENDERSON STEP #1

MIKE HENDERSON ELONGATED PARALLAX 

MIKE HENDERSON ELONGATED PARALLAX CROPPED

I think I am closing in on how I want to paint.  At least for this week!!!  I get bored with doing things the same way every time but I want to do more in this style for awhile at least.  

This is the image we are going to use in the workshop I am giving a week from tomorrow.  I put the photograph through some of the filters in Photoshop Elements and created an image that is elongated  with simplified shapes, soft edges and interesting colors.  That is what I started with.  I like my work to have an element of mystery (how did she do that?) This assumes you didn't read my detailed descriptions of exactly how I did "that".  Using a photo program to manipulate an image should just be the starting point.  If you copy the distortion directly then there is no mystery.  I like to use these technical aides as a way to nudge me in the direction I want to go, help me visualize possibilities and then combine it with other ideas for a finished painting

So, using the photoshop manipulation as my starting point, I blocked in the shapes, values and initial color with traditional brushes onto an old painting that I had covered with gesso and then stamped into the wet surface.  I used the same palette from yesterday's painting and the same tools, mostly a thin wooden coffee stirrer and some finger painting.  I managed to stop before I overworked this piece.  I am happy with the balance of line, broken color, intensity texture, hard and soft edges.  

By photographing this piece at an angle, I was able to create another distortion called parallax which gives me my next variation to try.