I’ve just been revising the picture and nitpicking it to death!  I first attacked the clouds on the right. I had two identical cloud shapes which I really didn’t like. I removed a small chimney from back of the house roof that was confusing. I also decided to darken the roofs and back of house that were away from the sun. Add cooler blue violets to the roofs, then some of the original magenta back into them. I think they look better and relate better to the building on right. Another thing that was bothering me was the porch at far left. I darkened it and added only small hints of light on it, as well as straightening.  And I did a lot of other little stuff! This is what finishing a picture is like. It’s never really done until it’s framed, but I do try not to play with them too much once I consider them done. What’s interesting is how easy it is to see things I don’t like once I film them. When I’m trying to decide when a piece is done, I ask myself honestly whether anything is bothering me. If I was about to sell it would I be embarrassed by anything?  Too often I haven’t done this and have been sorry once the painting was framed.  Hopefully, I’ve caught the problem areas in this piece. Note: there is actually more room on the right–the roof isn’t touching the edge but every time I film it it seems to come out this way!  I give up!!!

Hill Farm, 20 x 24, Rives and Colourfix liquid primer

I’m done for today. The sun is out and now we have frigid weather–in March. Sigh.  HOWEVER, I’m pretty happy with the picture. There are still things I’ll tweak, I’m sure, but I decided to be done with it for today, sign it and share it with you. When I did the building on the right, I started using different colors than the houses and it looked too disjointed. But it is a barn/shed and not a house. I tried to resolve the problem by adding majenta to the roof and some of the warm blue green to the shadowed sides of the buildings. The grass was quite simple–just slightly different layers of green Giraults. I added some majenta and browns to the lower grass to give the sense of something in the grass, such as bugle. I also added the fence posts leading that lead into the long building.  I’m really happy with the composition. The lesson to learn from this is that even if you aren’t completely happy with the colors or the way the pastels are going on the surface, it’s probably all fixable as long as the composition is OK!  I’m still not completely happy with the clouds, but they are easy to fix.  And now to the piano and the beef shank that’s been cooking all afternoon and smells wonderful!  I hope those of you in MD have enjoyed your snow day!

Hill Farm, 20 x 24, BFK Rives and Colourfix liquid primer

OK!  The snow has stopped, a nice man just shoveled out the driveway and the walk and I am doing much better with the picture!  Here’s what I’ve done. First, in the sky, I went back with two light shades of Girault and using an up and down stroke, I lightened and unified it and softened the lights of the clouds. I think it looks a lot better. Also used the vertical stroke in the background trees and added some violet to the darker areas.  The buildings on the left were done primarily with Terry Ludwig pastels, using my warm and cool reds from the “vibrants” set, and various neutral greens and blues.  In the fields, I’m trying to keep the color loose and gestural.  I’ve added the clothesline with some bright pieces of color and the red gas pump on the hill near the shed.  If the surface wasn’t red, I’d be tempted to leave it uncovered in places. I like the effect at the bottom. If I was working on a surface with watercolor underpainting or Wallis brown, I’d  consider leaving as it is. I don’t think I can do this with this picture. Maybe I’ll do it again on UART and see!  I did think about using the UART rather than the Rives as I thought that more saturated pieces of color in the fields might be a real asset.  But I’ll finish this and see how I like it.

Almost completed right side and background

I am struggling!!! I took a long time to get the drawing on the paper the way I wanted it. The houses are bigger than in the original drawing, but I’m happy with that. I wasn’t sure how to begin the painting so I decided to use the same color of a light, dark and mid tone Girault and put in some of the key areas. The first picture shows this.  Then I decided I’d better get started with the sky and background trees. The Giraults weren’t working!  I don’t have the right values of blues in that brand so I went to soft, in the trees as well. I was also fighting the red!   I decided to stick with an up and down stroke in the sky and liked the way that looks but it’s not done.

My other problem is with the colors in the roofs and buildings. After putting in some blue green as an intermediate shade, I decided that it would really be better with all of the greens to have warm colors in the roofs and buildings. I’m hoping I can go over them successfully with some of my Ludwigs. But right now, I’m still struggling with the background. (And it’s snowing harder than ever!!!)  BTW, I’m not sure why the surface looks so orange at the top and red at the bottom–it’s all the same color and not really orange!  Looking at the lightness of the first picture, I’m wishing I hadn’t gotten into the soft pastels so soon.  Oh well.  My cloud shapes need help also!!!

Initial layers of Girault

Soft pastel in sky and background hills

We’re snowed in again! Instead of teaching and hopefully selling a painting this afternoon, I’m in my home studio. I’ve been working on my upcoming Finding Your Style workshop in Tiverton and thinking a lot about composition and color. So I’ve decided to do a demo today and discuss my thoughts and process. Have no idea whether the results will be good or not!

Composition. In this post, I’m giving you the color photo (I also have a black and white I’ll work from) and my graphite drawing. The farm is on a hill along Route 28 on the way to Point of Rocks. There is a barn and silos further up the hill. What I love is the shape and lighting on the shed and the formation of the buildings around the house. In order to get it all in and make the picture more dramatic, I’ve placed these closer together and raised the hill.  There is  a progression leading from the long narrow building at lower left to the house and up the hill to the shed at upper right. There is a clothesline in the front of the house  in photo) that I have moved to the back and I might remove the small building obstructing its view. I have played with the background hills and wanted more of a backdrop to the shed. I’ll also add clouds but will probably do that at the point of putting pastel on paper. I find it hard to draw them in.

Value. Most of the picture is in a similar value with darks in the buildings and four areas of light that I hope will carry the eye through the picture: the long roof, the front of the house, some lights in the fields and the light on the shed. Manipulation of the value is going to be really key in this picture since so much of it is similar greens!

Color considerations. Since this is going to have a lot of greens, I decided to tone the surface with a reddish color. I used quinacridone (cool) red with a lot of umber to dull it. It’s a mid value, which I like.  I won’t be doing any kind of underpainting on top of it, so I have to have a value and color that will work throughout.  The buildings in the photo are all violet and yellows. I will probably make some changes, but will definitely keep violets in there (how could I not?!)

Reference photo

Graphite drawing (10″ x 12″)