Elliptical Horizon (Reprise)

I had an inspiration to do a picture with an elliptical horizon which turned into the painting 'Elliptical Horizon' which depicted a kangaroo flying a space craft out of a city over highways that were going nowhere. Although that painting left me satisfied with the result, there was no indication of an elliptical horizon, in fact the horizon had been scrubbed out because it did not actually fit well with the final design. To make a long story short I came up with this painting of the same title with 'reprise' in brackets which clearly does have an elliptical horizon, along with a host of other creative objects strewn throughout. Some of the drawing was taken from lab notes (the phrase DNA damage appears on a sign) however I did not feel the work was strong enough to fit in the lab book series. There are a few colour combinations I have discovered over the years that are very useful. In this work, the sky and most of the grey brickwork was done with rose madder (pink) and emerald green (pale green). The emerald green is very opaque (thick, not transparent) and so it lends a lot of weight and density to anything you mix it with, making it a good colour to use when depicting brick. When diluted with water it gives a gentle, granular look that suits skies very well, in this painting a lot of the sky colours were done with emerald green. The rose madder helps to neutralize the green giving a warm grey. Touching the red/green mix with yellow and a bit more red gives you warm browns that can be used (as seen in the character in the foreground and the sign post). PS, Lab book #12, Archi-doodle City (W/E) is complete, however bad weather precludes a decent photo at this time. I am on the market for a good lamp to allow me to take pictures over the dark and depressing winter months. 

Elliptical Horizon (Reprise), watercolour 10 x 11" cold press, Fall 2008 (No. 1434)