Sunday, February 25, 2007

So how DID you paint that? Part Four

I'm very aware now of the time I have left to finish this piece, if I want to submit it to a certain event. The deadline for an image and it's details has to be submitted by the 5th March... so I have to concentrate and get cracking now; which is not particularly easy when I know I also have to think about what I'm going to do for the gouache workshop I'm tutoring on the 3rd March.
Continuing with the middle ground I painted the two accacia tree crowns first, again working from the ‘back of the painting’ forward. I kept the amount of black I used for the shadow areas to a minimum but made them darker than the trees in the background to create recession. The highlights on the trees include a touch of mauve and pinks to warm the colours and to add to the feel of morning light. I would need to let the paint dry before adding the bushes in front so I started on some of the vegetation on the right putting in a base coat over which I would paint broken foliage then some branches and bushes that are to the back of the group.


The following day I added the bushes to the left, working down to the level of the ground; making the shadow area darker than on the trees I painted the day before (for the recession) and the detail within picked out in mauves and dark blue-green. I painted the foliage onto a wet base of medium tone green and browny-purple putting in the dark colours first and finishing with the highlights of a soft peachy cream colour.
Painting time varies depending on the piece I’m working on or the medium involved. For example, on the day I painted the bushes on the left, the time I spent in front of the easel was about 8 hours, starting at 10a.m and finishing at 8.30p.m; with several breaks in proceedings for eye rest and sustenance totalling about two and a half hours.

Unfortunately my digital camera isn't quite up to the challenge of taking really decent images of paintings, for some reason any detail blurs out (which strangely doesn't happen when I take a photo of my cat, for example!?) I'm hoping to borrow my Dad's digital SLR to take the final shots, so until then I apologise for the poor quality of the images. But hopefully they willl be enough to give you an idea of how I proceed through the piece.

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