Color Me Crazy

Today I filled in the white spaces with leftover mix of the exterior paint wash. I patched up a couple of plaster spots that had been loosened in the aftermath of Plaster Festival 2007. Since the shot of the prepped cottage you see above from this morning, I have added a darker brown to the outside and a more solid cadmium red to the inside. The swatch strip shows some of the colors the walls have been painted today.

Outside: I'm still working out the cottage colors. I wasn't crystal clear on where I was going with the colors, just a vague sense of earthiness and woodsiness. A lot of my reference images of this type of cottage show them being pale yellow or stained white on the outside, contrasted with dark brown timbers. Could have done that but I really wanted to get on there with some color instead. --?--

Inside: Ok, these brazen boudoir red walls are my gnarly issue right now. I didn't know how I want the interior walls to look exactly, except for them needing to be monochromatic, red wine/maroon to match with the planned soft furnishings. I want the interior of the cottage to feel entirely warm, inviting, and cozy--NO COOL HUES/TONES WHATSOEVER. Outside this house is for other palates of life, but in here, it's gotta be these colors.

Unfortunately, right now the interior walls look oooky (yuccky) not right and I don't know how to remedy it except to keep adding diluted layers of color until it reaches "right". The slop slop texture of the plaster looks great on the outside, but less workable for the inside. I have to keep in mind lighting for camera as well. I know how to get good light on a light object but if I make the interior walls too dark and solid will I be able to make it look rich? I'll have to do a few tests to see what I'm getting.

I will say that the entire cottage interior is so rough and slipshod that it really does look like a goat built it--no--like a goat CHEWED IT! But in the end I believe I'll be able to sort it all out and make it work. Although, that may be accomplished by simply overlooking the walls.

Onward!

Paul enjoying the first issue of Halfland Magazine!
Well, it's really just a little soft bound photobook of various Halfland character sketches that I've done so far from Viovio. It's so nice to have a bound document of the progress as I go along. (It only cost me $7.50 for a 25 page book and the print quality, especially on the glossy cover, is excellent.)