Week 4 Inspiration & Research

This week's inspiration/research/references... as dull as it sounds, was mostly brick walls.  I've noticed a lot about brick walls now that I hadn't noticed before, and I find myself paying more attention to them in the real world, too. 

This was a good reference for how the light hits the bricks inside the window frame, and will continue to be a good reference until I can get the darn window frame straight.

This was my main reference for the brick wall. I had to look at bricks very closely.  I still have a lot of texture to add, I just haven't figured out to communicate that through paint yet.

Through the process of this entire painting, I keep thinking of Brianna's work and how incredibly detailed it is.  I imagined that all of the different materials in her paintings would appear very textured, like what I wanted to do in this painting (that's kind of why I want to do this, to prove to myself that with enough patience and enough hours in the studio, I can paint something that is as realistic and stunning and textural as any of the pieces I've seen from her).  I looked through some of the stuff in her gallery, and I was actually surprised that a lot of the textures (other than hair or reflective objects in the foreground) are much more implied than I thought.  But here is an image that I still remember marveling at when it was still in the studio, thinking the detail on the wood and the whicker was incredible.  It's also perfect for this week because there's some brick in the bottom left corner.  I guess it's pushing me to include even more detail than I see in her work (the challenge will be the fabrics--she loves fabrics, and drapery is almost my least favourite thing to paint).

Brick is not crazy detailed.  Them floors though.

As my bricks came out crooked, I started thinking up a narrative to justify why they were that way (I'll probably still fix them though, it bugs me to no end).  But it seemed okay while I was working them, because I figured, she's not in a coffee shop in new york or chicago, or some trendy American city.  She might be somewhere more quaint, like a small town in the northwest, but she's probably not.  She's probably in Europe, in an old city.  So the cafe is probably old, and maybe the building has shifted a little bit, and maybe that's why the bricks are crooked.  And because of her dress (by the way the whole dress is going to be the tartan) and her connection to me, a city in Scotland makes the most sense.  A lot of the brick in towns around Scotland is not really brick but hewn stone, but some buildings are made from brick, so it's close enough.  Anyway, this seemed to be where she should be (this isn't my photograph--I couldn't get this amazing of a view while I was there, but you may see some of my photos of foggy Edinburgh later on when I get to working on the exterior view through the window).