How one develops

This is a new beginning. I want to show how just one of my paintings develop. What gets changed, colors, compostion, etc. This painting is being done from a mental collection of remembered images. I am an active cyclist, doing centuries, club rides and solo rides, so this image is that moment of shop talk and story swapping that happens before and after each ride. If you ride in a group it is necessarily social. I enjoy this aspect, but it can get dedious. After all, art making is a solo activity and most visual artists enjoy being alone.

I am trying to balance the colors at this point, find which gestures are going to help the composition, which direction the figures should be looking (which way their head face helps move the viewer's eye through the picture plane).






So now I have added the color and logos to the foreground cyclist, notice how the red band on the green jersey informs the green and brightens it. One of the tools I use is breaking the edge of the margins of the paintings, this increases the movement. The primary reason for not painting to the edge of the paper. That and my mentor in college, Jewett Campbell once said, "The first four lines of your painting are the four edges of the paper."





Now I am trying to find the ground color(s) and work some compliments into the jerseys, working warms and yellows against the intended blues and lavenders of the parking lot pavement. I felt that a fourth bicycle leaning against the car in the background would help hold the upper section and unite the two main characters; other than their hand gestures and their facial directions.


This is what I see happening, what is your take?