Chihuly Piece - Advice Needed

Post finished and unfinished work here for critique and appraisal.
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Chandi
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Joined: 20 Jan 2006 06:18 pm
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Chihuly Piece - Advice Needed

Post by Chandi »

Hello everybody. :) It has been a long time since I've done a large scale piece of artwork - my last one was a 20 x 20 inch weave of a cell and a supernova done in the 11th grade (shoddy photo of said picture here). And well, now's the time for a new one, four years later...

Over the summer, my boyfriend, our best buddy/third wheel, and I went to see Chihuly's glasswork at Phipps Conservatory. Amazing stuff, if you've never seen any of his work. Look him up. Anyways, there was an exhibit that was a boat with glass balls floating on a pond; it felt so surreal. Here's a decent picture (colors slightly faded, but I have more pictures with the true colors) I took of it:

Image

Now, I plan on doing this picture over in colored pencil on a large piece of Bristol board. However, I need a few points of advice...

1) Do I leave in the structural work of the conservatory, i.e. the glass panes and separators, brick work, etc? I was thinking of taking the brick work out, but not sure on the glass panes.
On that note, if I take this all out, what should I do with the background then?

2) Should I add in more glass spheres on the bottom tier of the waterfall, so that blue one isn't lonely?

3) Should I keep or subtract the dead leaves in the water? Add more, even?

4) What kind of hues can I add to break up the monotony of green? I was thinking a little bit of blues and purples.

Aaand I think that's it on the questions right now. I'd appreciate and love any and all comments, suggestions, advice, etc. Thank you everyone!
Twofold Black
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Re: Chihuly Piece - Advice Needed

Post by Twofold Black »

I'm already looking forward to seeing the finished product.
Chandi wrote:1) Do I leave in the structural work of the conservatory, i.e. the glass panes and separators, brick work, etc? I was thinking of taking the brick work out, but not sure on the glass panes.
On that note, if I take this all out, what should I do with the background then?
I think you either need to keep the brickwork or make the fountain less obviously manmade. I won't turn an eyelash at an obviously artificial fountain with no overtly manmade touches on it in real life, but in art that kind of thing is bothersome. Only the brickwork in the front is necessary for this purpose, though.
Chandi wrote:2) Should I add in more glass spheres on the bottom tier of the waterfall, so that blue one isn't lonely?
Yeah, a couple of smaller ones. This will also give you the opportunity to pull some reds down into the foreground so that they aren't all concentrated in a single area. Unless that's what you're going for.
Chandi wrote:3) Should I keep or subtract the dead leaves in the water? Add more, even?
I'd say keep them, but make them green. Green leaves in the water and dead leaves in the water say different things.
Chandi wrote:4) What kind of hues can I add to break up the monotony of green? I was thinking a little bit of blues and purples.
Those are a good bet. Also, make use of the white striations on some of the leaves.

What aspect ratio are you going to use? If I were doing it I'd probably do a narrow vertical rectangle from the center of the image, roughly the aspect ratio of a bookmark, because I find that kind of thing easy to compose.
Image
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