Zoraida

~ Zoraida ~
40" x 30"
Oil on Canvas ( In-progress )
~Sold~

I've recently been commissioned to recreate a work of art that was originally created by an unknown artist.

The customer saw a painting on a wall of a local Italian restaurant and asked if I'd be able to paint it for her.

I went to the restaurant and took a few photos of the painting and we all searched for the artist's signature but to no avail. Maybe it's hidden underneath the edges of the tremendously gaudy frame that surrounded the piece?

The customer enjoyed the colors and general composition of the original and wanted those traits retained. Besides that she's allowed me complete artistic license to re-create as I'm led.

I love being able to have a bit of freedom while creating an original work of art. I also didn't want to copy verbatim, due to first of all, my feelings of the original background having nothing more than several splotches of color. Secondly, it is never a good idea to copy any living artists copyrighted work. I'm not going to badmouth Abstract art in general but I just felt that some realism mixed in with the abstract style would make for an interesting composition. I decided to change the background from splotches of various color to actual "daytime-sky" and "evening-space" to echo the effect of the night/day look of her face.
The moon was allowed to have a little character, with the addition of a face. I have no idea what those round things are to the right of the moon.
I figure the moon was lonely so I'm going to make them into star-like objects.

Some color changes along the way never hurt. Giving the small details of the painting some actual detail is always a plus.
The small fish in the bowl on the table was merely one continuous line. Kind of like the Christian "Fish Symbol"

Instead of just copying, I decided to make the fish a little more alive, by actually giving the little guy a body.

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Base colors have been applied to pretty much everything. I wanted to get a little paint on each area of the canvas except the outer border which will be untouched until a later time. It actually has remained untouched throughout the entire process and will allow the acrylic (textural) medium that I'll apply later; the proper surface to adhere to.

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Have no fear...I haven't given up...and won't until I'm finished!

I'm still pluggin' away at it.

As you can see, I actually have gotten considerably further along.

I'm so glad that I wasn't tied down with customer constraints and am able to let ideas that come to me as I paint, freely flow into the work.

The addition of the background mountain on the left was totally unplanned but seems to work well with the overall composition. I've never attempted to paint in the abstract manner before this commission and you know what...it's fun!

I've still gotta add some foliage to the tree on the left, a few ornate railing support pieces and finsh up by working more with her flesh tones and garment.

I did kinda space out a bit when I began working on the subjects garment and began painting a stream type design on it, along with flowers which will be strategicly placed here and there. I had a lot of fun with the pallette knife on the floor tiles and tree bark textures. I also worked on the border and after applying textural medium, I ran my finger through it, creating designs and textures which will cast their own interesting shadows. The frame? I'm just trying to get some ideas, the painting's hasn't actually been framed yet.

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.The foliage on the tree has been completed along with the s-shaped railing supports. I've still got to get to the skin tone and garment.

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After stepping away from the painting for a few days I've finished up by adding color to the skin and actually ended up repainting the face. The garment was finally tackled with an assortment of flowers of varying sizes and shapes. Final touches were added throughout.
All in all I quite enjoyed this dance with surrealism and hope that you did too.

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