Bluesman at Piano
The planning for this painting placed emphasis on the color choice. I was going for a bold graphic style. To do this I emphasized high chroma colors. These are the colors that have the most color for a given hue. The most yellow yellow is light, the most purple purple is near black. I also chose mostly warm colors (red, orange, yellow) with the bluesman the only cool color.
Bluesman at Piano - Brian Kelly, 2009 acrylic on canvas board, 9″ x 12″
This color selection also helped when it came time to revise or correct the painting. After letting it sit overnight, the attitude of the player was too different from my sketch and did not capture the mood. I liked the hat, so I adjusted the figure as much as I could without changing the hat. Since the colors were mostly straight colors with some adjustment with white or black, matching colors was easy. The time lapse video shows the power of acrylics to enable correction and changes.
Time lapse video of the painting, set to Kevin Smith’s “Living Room Blues” from his Red Album
- the MuseTags: video
