This is for June 2010 Wordpress challenge. It's oil on 8"x10" canvas board.
The reference photo has several purple park benches. Drawing the whole bench, with shadows and all would be a perspective nightmare, so I thought. What I saw, at least in the beginning, was the curved legs of the benches looking like purple treble clefs, with the shadows looking like the lines in a music score, being a pianist myself. So I thought it would be neat to paint the legs of the benches to look like purple treble clefs.
As I started to sketch, it turned into a perspective nightmare, even with just the legs and the shadows. (I wished I had taken a short cut using tracing paper!) The lines were so complicated with free hand. I was running out of time, having a few other paintings to finish, and I needed to pack for our trip also. I did what I could, trying to emphasize the center park bench legs to look like treble clefs, in the middle of all the busy lines. At the end, I think this looks more like a spider web with a purple spider in the middle, and I will be getting vertigo if I keep looking at this painting any longer!
I think you did a wonderful job, and I totally understand the work you had to put into this. I love the crop you chose, because yes, it is about the legs & the shadows! On mine, to lessen the overwhelming complexity & perspective nightmare, I used a grid method to sketch. I found the more "cells" to my grid, the easier to sketch - as I only had to focus on each little square to sketch (and hope the whole picture would come together when I was done!). Very nice work you did with a difficult challenge.
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