Simplify! - Some More!

OK Gang, here are the next ones that came in. Thanks so much for participating! This is a lot of fun to see what you've all come up with. 

I'm starting to think that the blog isn't the best format for doing something like this, as it is becoming a little bit challenging to keep things organized across many applications, and I keep thinking I'm going to miss something or someone's submission. 

I think a Facebook group page might have been a smarter solution, but too late now. We'll stick with this format until the end, or I get so overwhelmed that I start dropping balls. LOL~ 

In the meantime, let me just say that you guys are doing great! Just look at the variety of solutions!!

Thanks for posting such a great photo reference to get the juices flowing.  I struggle to simplify, and tried my darnedest to paint this as requested, but knew I was in trouble upon noticing a quarter inch brush in my hand...ha!  

Vern Schwartz
http://vernschwarz.blogspot.com/

The idea was to take a densely packed and busy photo and find ways to simplify it, perhaps by cropping, but also by resisting the temptation to paint every detail there. I love a challenge, so I was up to give it a try. 

Here's my first one, my usual size, 2.5" x 3.5".I was intrigued by the density of the small shapes and colors, but attempted to keep it unified by values. Close one eye and squint and you'll see the big dark shape on the far left, the medium-dark shape in the middle, and the medium and medium-light shapes of the hills. Successful, but not quite what I was after.

Here's my second one, a HUGE departure for me and far more what I wanted to accomplish. It's literally huge, for me anyway: 8"x5" on a piece of black Pastelmat paper!

I chose to crop and distort the image, pulling it into a much elongated and stylized version that appealed to me. I loved the sense of a street going uphill in stages, and enhanced that with the light coming between the buildings. I probably 'should' have added more shadow shapes of the buildings, but I chose to limit that response in order to keep it simple. I limited my palette, and heightened the contrasting values. Cars? No chance! I just haven't the inclination for those shapes, so I suggested a couple and let it go at that. Do you think it works?

Deborah Secor

http://deborahsecor-gouache.blogspot.com/

Couldn't resist your challenge image - love that sort of thing and drooled over the street scenes in Urban Aria. In small town Iowa the building height / street width ratio doesn't allow for type of composition. I was trying to get a detailed look without really doing any...just dots and dashes.

John Preston

http://olsonlarsen.com/artists.cfm?artist_id=693&cmd=display

Ah, those pesky details. It is fascinating how few are really needed, but also how fun it is to paint too many of them... My tendency is to include too much in a painting, and although I cropped the reference hard, I could have cropped more and singled out one point of interest instead of using 3 of them. While I used my way of handling colour, I tried to think of Terry’s advice as I painted. I chose a small format, 12x9” (A4), so it wouldn’t be possible to do much detail with the pastel sticks. My aim was to take the viewer far into the painting, and to give a sense of sitting behind the wheel waiting at that traffic light. So I called it “Traffic”. Thank you Terry for an interesting project, and the visual dialogue with fine artists!

Charlotte Herczfeld
http://charlotteherczfeld.com/blog/40595/traffic-part-of-a-project-with-terry-miura

Thanks Terry for this fun, if terrifying challenge!! I live in an urban/rural area so not something I see every day and something I would usually avoid. Anyway I had a go and this is the result. 9 x 12 on Wallis with soft pastel. It took about an hour and a half and was really a lot of fun in the end. I think the guy on the right is on a suicide run and it looks more like a snow scene rather than a sunlit day. I may make it more snowy despite the green trees. Fortunately I ran out of time or I would have noodled it to death so working fast forced me to not detail. Keeping a simple pallet was hard too as I like a lot of colour. I may make a more colourful version now I have braved it. On the drive home I found myself looking at buildings, cars, roads and rhythms in a whole new way so it definitely woke up my artist eyes.Thanks for a great challenge.

Jen Humphreys 

I was challenged this week by a blog that encouraged you to "Simplify"... that is, don't sweat the small stuff! As someone who thrives on details, I found that I needed to take that step. I worked quick and small, knowing that if I went bigger, it would give me room to put more details; If I kept at it, I would somehow find a way to finagle lots of details in where I thought they should be!

Working in a fairly new medium to me,  I decided to let the implied colors thrive. It was fun. I am only somewhat satisfied as I cannot feel it as complete, as simplified as it is from the original. I must learn restraint! I do enjoy the learning experience that comes from this. I will work more on being "loose" and a bit more abstract. 

Jessica Shippee

http://shippeecraft.blogspot.com/2012/02/working-loose-new-thing-for-me-street.html