Creeper done...some thought/comparisons to the '20's...

Took about ten minutes to paint in the other treble hook, and am satisfied...and now, its time to start another muskie lure...with much lore...

On another online artist's venue, someone comment they liked this work, and how it "looks almost real!"

I smiled at that comment, and gave it more thought... "almost real"...hee hee...I like that, and is more or less the visual tease I'm playing with right now. 

After thirty years striving to render and paint realistic, it comes as no surprise to myself I am capable.  Perhaps one reason I burned out from the wildife art mandates of the 80's-90's where detail upon detail defined one artist better/superior to another, and for myself it simply meant not more talent, but a labored commitment.  The public and marketers touted such as talent...for myself, "well...um, took a lot of time is all!"

But, playin' with areas of the canvas that do not feel real enough as compared to that intentioned ideal focal area I'm coming to believe, keeps the eye entertained, and while not fully 100% convinced...also intrigued.  A giving of greater emphasis to the subject comes from such, in the same way perhaps that a bit of color gains power against many neutrals.  Henri Matisse once said, " a thimbleful of red is redder than a bucketful."

Then I was thinking, remember back (in the 20's-30's ?) when women used to wear fur stoles around their necks with heads to clamp down on the tail? I heard a funny comment once on that...that by having an animal around their neck, compared to say a monkey or mink, they looked quite pretty!

 

 











If we take that possible psychology, then compared to the unfinished areas of a painting, the rendered refined areas appear all that more real...thus, that "almost real" measure.


Here then, would be the animal fur stole of this work- 

 

Which then by comparison...makes this suggestive realism appear all the more the real...
 

Its also a heck of a lot more fun painting such so much less labored.  The use of scrubbing some brushwork in the negative space or background is nearly akin to a street magician's sleight of hand trick.  It takes the eyes off the imperfections of pulling off the trick long enough to fully convince the viewer.