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I finally finished “The Fool” the other night.  I worked late into the wee hours the night before Halloween and got it done just in time  for me to enter it into a local art competition   with two  of my other paintings (at Ultimum Verum Gallery in Portland), all about story and creating a world based on imagination, of which I think this piece qualifies. I’ll know by the end of the week whether I got in or not, and will let you know more when I know more.

I didn’t think finishing this painting was going to take so long, but the complexity demanded more and more attention to detail and working out the exact colors.

The Fool walking towards the hills in the distance for instance was buried by all that green despite having a red shirt initially. First I tried white, which worked but was not vibrant enough for a Fool.  Finally at the last minute I chose yellow. You can still see the red poking through, which I ended up liking.

I spent a lot of time just looking.

I also added blue green to the green of the hills, and put in a lot of shadow I hadn’t had  at first — including shadow on the fish.  I felt the sheer number of fish was just too busy otherwise.

I  go between really liking this piece and thinking I should do another one that is a lot more simplified.

Part of it is that I am not used to  putting so much into one painting that is as small as it is ( 11 1/2 inches by 17 inches tall) and has narrow borders like this.  So it has been a challenge.

I am considering making more of the  art for the Tarot cards using pen and ink  rather than paint. The only way I can tell if that is best is to try it. However I talked with someone who has a degree in illustration, and he was telling me that there are new papers and ink out there that expand the boundaries of what one can do in that arena. I want to try since I love the direct feel of having a nib rather than a brush in  hand.

Not to get me wrong since I love to paint too. Its just a slightly different process. Pen and inks are quicker for me, and perhaps more automatic. So that is something I want to explore a bit more especially with the challenge of doing the art for 72 cards…

Meanwhile I am likely going to do more paintings of some of these too simply because I like to paint. But such future paintings will need to be larger next time… whereas I think this is a good size for the pen and inks.