Blue Paintings & Unwanted Detail 
In these paintings I found that mixing colour is the part that takes the longest, and by applying many colours the painting takes far longer to complete.
When analyzing the choice of subject I have found that they have a similar feel to them as of the previous paintings. Because of the simplicity of the painting style by leaving out the faces the men in the blue painting could very well be the men in ‘Sanding in Blood’ and ‘The Exchange’. I really like this because it means that the viewer has to work harder to figure out what is happening in the narrative, and it also adds a sense mystery to the paintings just like there may be in a crime/detective thriller.
The Fare
I like this painting, however there are some things that didn’t turn out as planned, and if I were to paint the image again would change.
I really liked the composition of this image, and tried to get the feeling of a Los Angeles taxi cab through without adding too much detail, however I don’t think that it worked.
With the very simplistic style that I am going for at the moment, I have found it extremely hard to limit the amount of detail I have been putting into my paintings. In this case, I think that I failed to strike up the correct balance between simplicity and clarity. I believe that if you don’t add enough detail, then the painting is in danger of becoming abstract and devoid of narrative, however if too much detail is added then the image looses it’s mystery, and simply becomes another image and not a piece of the puzzle.
In this image I believe I added too much detail in parts, and not enough in others, giving the painting an uneven look. If I were to redo this ‘The Fare’ then I would definitely make sure to lower the detail in some areas in order to give it a more balanced appearance.
For the next image I plan to continue with the Taxi cab narrative. Perhaps now that I know of the balancing issue I can avoid it.
Joe
