20131013 - Planning a new painting

I'm in the process of planning a new, larger painting. I will sometimes take the effort to initially sketch it in my sketchbook to see if I like the composition. Lots of times I move components around a bit. Then I might even do a larger study of the painting.

In this case, I took the sketch and scaled it up to 12" x 9" (in portrait mode). I plan on taking this idea (of lighted advent candles) and painting it on a 14" x 11" canvas. I will make a "canvas" out of watercolor paper (as I did with the Clematis).

Part of what I wanted to learn is how to make the lighted halo around the candles and how it should fade into the background. This painting did not fully capture it, but I am not completely displeased with it. I think I know how to accomplish what I want.

The fun thing about this is that it will allow me to run some LED lights into the back of the painting and "back light" the advent candles. I suspect I will need to make a mask for behind the watercolor paper so that only those areas I want to be lit will stand out.

I have not yet decided if I want to use some calligraphy along with the candles. While that might look nice, it will be very difficult to get the mask for the calligraphy to match the front of the painting. But the effect could be pretty spectacular.

I suspect you will see this one again.