design

at tauerville waiting for and painting of: noses

Here, in the house of andy, we are still waiting for a couple of things. One of the wait, being on the somewhat annoying side, is for the nose. Although a cold generally is a banality and annoyance, but not more, the nose is still somewhat dimmed down. From time to time, flashback like a whiff of something hits it and promises the end of darkness, like a whiff from the gardenia concentrate on the paper strip. More on that one soon…

so, we are waiting, and while doing so, we are sending out newsletters, pack shipments in the factory, and paint, which is very instructional, in a couple of ways. Today’s picture shows you a cut-out of a larger full head picture that I did on the cintiq, painting from scratch, using a model (photo).

The instructional part here: When painting some anatomical details, like the fine lines on the eye, with the transitions from black to white to black, or on the lips, sometimes, one single 2 pixel line could change it all. Painting digitally means that you can zoom in and out like crazy. Zoomed in, you make a little 2 pixel width line, of maybe 20 pixels with (on a total scale of 3000 pixels). Think: Nothingness.

Zooming out again, you realize that you changed the way the complete picture feels. Amazing.

Of course, you, being the painter, realize it more than a neutral or interested observer. You can pinpoint the melancholy in the eye or the sensuality of the lips to one enhanced line. The observer might just get a different feeling about a picture, not knowing why this is. That’ s maybe another instructional part there.

Thus, coming back to the paper strip with the concentrated gardenia scent: Yes, a few ingredients that are in there in sub percent levels, finest lines, make a huge difference. Like cyclal C, from Givaudan,  at 0.06% in the concentrate. They matter for me more than for you, probably. I am still a bit blindfolded, zooming in.