This was the first picture I colored in for the Dancing Streets book (see previous post here). I jumped at it only because I wanted to see whether I could render the brown of the cane, and the way the light played on the outer edges vs the parts of the chair in shadow.
This was also an exercise in coloring in the pre-war Peranakan row houses in the background. Typically in pastel colors, these buildings on Keong Saik Street in Chinatown have undergone gentrification lately; what were once headquarters for Chinese clan associations are now quite likely to be Western pubs and restaurants, PR consultancies or other businesses.
But many F&B businesses along this street, famous for its past as a red-light district, trade on the history of old Singapore, hence nostalgic touches such as the use of these cane chairs in their decor.
Coloring is far from being a "mindless" activity. One really looks at the picture - and in this case, spots some drawing missteps, such as the missing building details through the ribs of the cane chair. It's white space there, where one should be able to see parts of the building in the background. And the chairs in the background also lack detail, which is why I colored them in progressively lighter shades of brown so they would "fade" into the distance.
Maybe the artist deliberately left out what he thought were unessential details.
Oh, and I came across someone else's rendering of the same picture. See below. I think the light on the cane was done better than mine. The white highlights are clearer, indicating a higher shine than in my picture.
And there are long shadows of the legs of the chair and tables too. Darn. We live and learn, don't we?
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| Minor quibble: if the light was falling on the back of this cane chair, shouldn't the shadows on the floor have gone in the opposite direction - from bottom left to top right, instead of from bottom right to top left? |
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