Sunday, October 26, 2008

Maine County Fair


9x11 oil on board

I learned a lot about farm animals at this fair like the difference between steers, oxen, and bulls. An oxen is a 4 year old steer. A bull has not be castrated. I always thought steers and oxen were completely different species.

Painting the straw was an interesting example of how you have to conceptualize something as having layers which actually doesn't. If you paint what you know the straw is, a chaotic mixture of many thin straws, it doesn't read right. You have to first paint a solid layer as if the back part of the straw piles were flat and then paint a few straws that catch the light to create the illusion of depth.

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