So for the past few days i’ve worked on the sky, reflections in the water, and adding branches to the trees.
Branching out and Brightening up
Month: November 2020
Back to snow…..
I’ve started a couple of new paintings. After all that bright, varied, colorful fall project this more austere picture somehow appealed to me. The sky provides most of the color, with the snow and ice providing quite a contrast. As usual i’ve struggled with the building, but it’s now better than it was. Just doesn’t work for me to draw buildings free-hand: again with this one had to go in and figure out vanishing points/perspective —after first go-round had dried.
The canvas i chose created another issue, in that apparently i failed to pretreat it with gesso and so it took 3 rounds/layers of paint just to get the snow to look vaguely white instead of a pale burnt sienna (which was the underpainting ).
There is quite a bit to do yet to manage to convey some better reality to the snow/ice and to handle the reflections of sky in the water. More to come…….
Another try with a Bird House
I’m getting ready to start a new painting. I’ve got several ideas for landscapes — one in summer, one in winter. Will show photos later. But before i get going on them, i thought i’d give another try to learning how to paint a bird house on a tree trunk. (Note: I worked and reworked one of these last summer, and never got it right.) Now in a painting class and teacher is focusing on values this month. So yesterday she had us do an underpainting — just using one color (i used burnt sienna); covering the canvas with a thin layer of paint and then working on the image by just changing the values of that hue, either by thickening or thinning the paint. I’ll show below the original reference photo and then my effort at an underpainting AKA Value Study.
Fall in Colorado — calling it done!
This past week i worked on finishing touches of light and texture. Added more leaves to trees; added more interest in the foreground. I showed painting to teacher to request some help with issue of backlighting. She reminded me it’s all in the values, so i darkened the Aspen tree trunks and lightened the Aspen leaves. Then darkened the parts of the forest that seemed to be in deep shadow.
Fall in Colorado – 2
This painting has “evolved” – because the design i started with was not working all that well. I experimented with ways to improve “movement” — how the eye moves through the painting. This should have been done in the design before i ever started painting. But i guess i fooled myself into thinking that i could make the reference photo work for the painting. Didn’t happen. It’s not finished, but this progress note at least gives an idea of my current direction.
LJ and NJ 