First image above: This is the completed first pass of the foreground. You can see it was pretty much painted in with full color. Notice the sky was left unpainted because I wanted it to relate to the ground masses.
Second image above: This is shown with an apple on my easel for scale. Here I finished the sky and found more detail in the light and shadow families. I find it easier to keep the sky clean by painting it last. This way I can use the sky color to paint right up to the edges of the already massed in areas. That allows for edge treatment while the sky is still wet–notice where the trees meet the sky. They are being washed out by the strong light and the trees are taking on more sky as they recede into the distance. That is why some sky color is mixed into them. It weds them with the same "DNA" as the sky. This creates the illusion of atmospheric perspective.
It is not yet finished. I'll probably look at it for a week or so, then decide if some areas could be tweaked. But I must admit I'm really pleased with it.
8 comments:
If you are not a teacher...you should be, Ron. Your text is so informative and instructive, I almost want to try oils...but, watercolors give me enough challenges to last a lifetime, I think....This is a wonderful composition.. a stairway to heaven, it seems to me........
You should be pleased, this is magnificent. I really like that you put the apple there as a reference point so we can determine how large this painting really is. This has to be incredible in real life.
Thank you for sharing your process and progress on this wonderful painting. It is inspirational!
Beautiful, Ron! I'd be tickled pink to do half this well!
This is a wonderful painting and described in such detail. I enjoy your posts-thanks for sharing.
This is a huge success!
Duh, I just realized I have the book of your paintings; Essence of Pittsburgh and love it..and it's you.
Thank you for showing us how you work through a painting- and it is a wonderful painting to show.
I appreciate the description of working the sky in after the foreground ... counterintuitive (not to mention counter to what we're taught), but the process works very well for a distant tree line. Thanks for shaking things up! It's a wonderfully rendered painting.
Post a Comment