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Marley vs The Dragon, Part II A Lesson Painting ~~ Kimberly Kelly Santini


I took a little break from this one, but finished her up late late late last night. Or was it this morning? oh well, does it really matter?

 
Here's where we were last week.

 
And here's the what I did last night (NOTE: in the interest of full disclosure, in addition to painting, I also consumed the better 1/2 of a package of mint oreos):

 

I started by pulling Marley's gaze down to the dinosaur toy. I also popped a bunch more color into her face. I spent lots of time studying the background - my initial concept included a sidewalk/concrete showdown, but the value range this created wasn't working.

 

So I brought the game indoors, literally. I added a stack of board games, thinking that would provide both supplemental context and the appropriate values. But in the long run, I realized this competed with Marley's face. Not acceptable.

 

So out the games went, and instead I laid down a loose and shadowy interpretation of an interior room in the far ground. And I added turquoise/blue washes to the rug so that the dinosaur really popped. (And then whiled away some time looking at various rug patterns online to see if any were suitable for the foreground - no luck there, but I did find one that would be simply marvelous in my front room.)

 

Finally, just to make it obvious that the dinosaur was a toy, I added a few marbles in.
 

"Marley vs The Dragon," 16" x 22", Golden Open Acrylics on a gallery stretched canvas, depicting the (now infamous) bulldog pup Marley, a Schleich dinosaur, and a few of my (lost) marbles. This painting is available for purchase through the Orion Art Center (248-693-4986) as part of their Dragon on the Lake Festival.

 
So what do you think about the first Dragonslayer painting? Is this a series I should continue?
 

Thanks, as always, for looking at and sharing my paintings with your friends and family.
 

Kim
 
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Comments

  1. Unknown11:43 PM

    Yes please continue the series!! Such a playful concept with great options for composition. Thanks for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous10:16 AM

    Kim,
    Love the way the dragon slayer portrait turned out. Adding the marbles did the trick. I vote to continue the series.

    Trisha

    ReplyDelete
  3. Kimberly Kelly Santini10:32 AM

    Cheryl and Trisha - thanks so much! I really had a good time with this one - so glad you enjoy it too!!

    ReplyDelete

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