DAve -

RE: your question of how many lights to use - I don't know how many of these bulbs for sure, but one of these along with a shoplight with two "daylight" flourescent tubes and some ambient light works pretty well for me. It's a strong light - I would think two, even in a dark room, would be sufficient. I used it by itself yesterday in a room with minimal daylight to give sufficient light at 100 ISO.


Kim - my goof! It's been awhile since I looked up the post - it was Chris Saper. Sorry, Chris! Here's the link: http://forum.portraitartist.com/show....1000bulbs.com

Julie

Dave, I like this painting. I have a lot of 'technical' critique, but that does not seems important here. I like it because you are not trying to make 'a nice picture' here. It is raw and pure and powerful. And in my view the paper towels can stay. They add to the whole of connotations that people can make seeing this painting.
Regards
Jan

Keep 'em
 

I agree with Jan's praise. Dave, absolutely keep the towel roll!

Garth

Hi Julie. Thanks for getting back to me on these lights. I ended up buying a few of the philiips 15W daylight lights and a sort-of octopus lamp so that I can plug in multiple bulbs. These lights are the coolest I've seen but I wouldn't have a problem warming up my environment if needed. I've tried one round of painting a study under stictly daylilght bulbs and I think it is an improvement since I find the colours on my canvas look stronger and more consistent in different lighting conditions.

Dave

Hi Jan. Great to see you on this site! Yeah, my goal in painting is all about being as raw and pure as I can be. To me, that's what makes a painting stronger than a skillfully rendered image in a more refined, reproducable medium. That being said, I always appreciate technical critiques since I'm always trying to improve on that. The towels initially struck me as simply an abstract compositional problem but I guess I should expect people to interpret beyond the artists intentions.

Dave

Thanks Garth. I haven't touched this painting since I posted the image here. Lately I've had a system where there's at least two paintings in progress. The painting that is in worse shape always gets the attention. I managed to really destroy another painting the other day. Since then, I'm not certain I'm going to mess with this one..at least no time soon. Although there are a lot of things that I could improve, I'm quite satisfied with the things that are right.

Dave