PROJECT 6 DRAWING FROM SKETCHES 2

First go at this using oil paint on Pip Seymour prepared ground.  A journey lies ahead on this one.  Below - several moons later, this is as good as it is going to get!

PROJECT 6 DRAWING FROM INDIRECT SOURCES - SKETCHES

Photo of subject

Line drawing

Tonal drawing

Colour sketch

Colour sketch version 2

Toned it down a bit.  Now I think first colour version better with more contrast and more going on
at bottom, that nice red.  Composition way to rectangular.  Let's see what happens when I start to make a painting.

Final version ....

Sunday 11th October  

Spent 2.5 hours today continuing with this.  Very difficult for me to work without reference to subject, I just go haywire.  Played around with paint, turned pic every which way, tried to get more and more abstract but it still looks completely realistic.  

- RH side worked better, LH side not quite complete. 

- Difficult doing the slate roofs

- composition not very good basically to start with

- thinking about the shapes and how they interact and move around each other would have helped

- started to think about this

- altered shapes and colours a bit 

- started by referring to memory and colour sketch, and then as usual turned to tone, then played with colour and then space and composition.

- 3 hour session not enough

- colours have gone a bit warm on the wall. 

- things got simpler once I used wider brush:)

- need to return to subject or analyse and abstract more

- the white patch at the back very key, also way the lead roof comes forward, I think that down pipe is actually the support for the roof

- that shrub in foreground looks too dark

- very hard work anyway, feel drained and depressed

- how would I do it again? not sure, think about volume more from the start

- what would I do differently? - ditto  VOLUME AND SPACE

COMPOSITION PLANNING

-what did I like? - unexpected results with paint, especially from different angle:))  I think the final version is better

- what did'nt I like?  - usual depression and panic, but then followed by clarification 

Below  more on this, getting to know the colours - dull blues, brighter blues, greens bright and dull, bright light oranges and dull oranges ...

Final version

Another go at this one.  Painted over previous version and started again, also trimmed a bit off bottom of board.  This one looks too blue here, but the composition and tonal pattern is better, it just feels stronger.
I worked very systematically, making a tonal sketch in acrylic, then mixing the colours carefully on a large piece of glass.  Today I built on that.  The main change was to increase the brightness of the grass and emphasize the strip of light behind the hedge.  Also I have added detail in bottom rh corner, big help.  Whew!  Result.

PROJECT 5 COMPOSITION MORE

September afternoon on Flanders Moss

Returned to painting after about 6 weeks.  Felt stuck on this one again, but suddenly picked up a brush and laid into it.  Realised I had the field on the left wrong size,  Whatever, now it works and I could go on with it.

View from top window towards Bannockburn (unfinished)

This is the second part of the composition project.  When you are asked to do a painting straight off without preparatory line, tonal or colour studies.  As usual my first impressions were all wrong.  I was drawn to the tree as a dark shape and only realised over working on it that the tree and background are medium in  tone, and that the garden hedge (there is a road there too) are just as important.  Not complete yet, but today (26th September) took it from messy tonal study based on a greyscale photo to colour.  It has been through several stages of tonal and colour and adjustment of composition already.

It started to work today when I stopped thinking so much and let my brushes take over.  Tree needs a bit more so does the hedge, but now I think I have the composition all right, good as it is going to be for now, and the colours near enough.

PROJECT 5 COMPOSITION

Starting on composition.  Difficult because this is an intuitive thing for me.  This exercise is about using tone and colour to make different compositions   zzzz  Still a bit burnt out from the panoramic paintings, but recovering:))

Next stage of this involves choosing from:

• two or more horizontal lines
• something intersecting the painting
• large empty space and small details surrounding
• very large foreground object intersecting 2 sides of the painting.

 First approach - make preparatory studies, drawings and colour studies.I decided to stay in studio for this for convenience and use the view of the ditch from window which I did not really resolve in previous project.  It will be option 2 with the ditch intersecting the painting.

I tried to start with charcoal as instructed but found I preferred to start in paint, messily as usual.  Here is result #1, done intuitively    Below is result #2, done later, painted over #1 to simplify it once I had got to grips more with thinking about the composition.

I have to paint fast to start with, get to know the subject and work out what I am trying to do before I can reflect and understand. I have to do it before I can think what I am doing!
  

Result #1

Result #2

Today I had another look and overpainted another attempt very loosely, trying to get that sense of the big curve in the composition, emphasizing that.  Began to get intrigued by the actual direction of the ditch and how it was affecting my viewpoint.  then I started to draw in charcoal. Not sure if I am ready to start the large painting as yet.  Plan to walk along that ditch so I can actually see where it goes.

Began to play fast and loose with the painting shapes and colours in order to get a composition, sort of.I was apprehensive about composition, because it is such an intuitive thing for me, but see that I can become more aware of it and that is great.  I think. 

Reading Brambilla about how important composition is.  Also "how valuable are the uncertainties that continually force us to ask questions that keep our mind open and receptive"

"imagine you are heading down a street in a place that is totally new to you"

I took this approach today and results surprised me.

It is EXHAUSTING  I have to take a break.  Fortunately Open Studios is next week so I having a general review.  Yesterday the ditch was full of water, and I made this sketch.  Result better than #2 above, ditch more central.  It takes a lot of time to look and get to know a subject.

27 June

About three weeks break here, pictures not that well received at OS, I did not have time to do any painting during that week, or since.  However today resumed and very glad to do be doing so.  Even if I am hopeless at it, I really enjoy the slow pace, the interaction with the subject, and the surprises
This one started out as a colour study but I got involved in the composition.  For me the studies are just a way of getting acquainted with the subject. so this will become the actual painting.

I am interested in the form of the landscape and the movement.  And finding the way to show that in colour.  Still work to do on this one.  Next one will be a new subject, out of the studio.

Still exploring this.  Above is most recent version. I keep seeing it differently, understanding how my eyes are reacting. Now working on the foreground.  Using oil paint for this one.

And again, building on basic:  I think I like previous attempt better

Did this one (below) really quickly.  Now I have established the basic shapes I can think about colour and space. It has taken 2-3 weeks to get to this stage, though I was away/busy some of that time.

PROJECT 4 PANORAMIC PAINTING

Greyscale version of photos

Photo

First go at this section

Second go at this one

 
Way to go here, foreground grass too bright, hedges and plants behind cage need adjusted, drawing and colour of cage ditto.  Brightest bits are yellow protectors and sky, cage posts need to be darker, plus blueish wash for netting on top.  Light kept changing, also cannot really see because poor light falling on painting.  Usual sploshy start followed by closer look.
Sky OK, field at back more green but subdued, different colours and tones in cage need looking at.  Composition OK, sense of distance OK. 

 Usual panic with this one, took me two sessions, pic is too bright.  

Image 3

Image 4

Image 5

 This one problematic  Subject difficult partly because of the tree. Very conventional composition.  Remains unresolved, but I will hope to work it out.  Still unresolved, basically too conventional, hope sometime to resolve....  A few days later image 5, not perfect BAM but stronger.
 
But it led me to revise painting from previous project. Still a bit to do on this, but I enjoyed the freedom and won't do too much more on it.  Here it is previously (middle below).  .  Ughh.

 

PROJECT 4.3 PANORAMIC DRAWING

Vertical

This exercise is about combining different viewpoints.  Here I have moved my "gaze" from quite low (the windowsill) up to the middle of the window.  I can see that I have got frame a bit crooked on left but basically I quite like the drawing, and I was thinking of tone and potential paint all the time.


Next exercise is a panorama

First drawing and start of second (on left)

First and second drawing

 Here is first drawing and start of the second.  Third one will be like the vertical above.
I am doing the view from studio window, not my favourite subject, landscape, but it is there.  Drawing tonally.  Next day continued with second drawing, it was pouring with rain, so the light was completely different.

Third drawing

Three drawings together

OK  but third drawing not great.  Tree drawing :(

Project 4 2 Looking out of a window

First painting

Revision 1

Tough doing this one, but surprisingly today it started to work.  Did version 1 (above), main thing was to get the outside area blocked in and it has begun to look OK.  Then decided windowsill needed reworking, drawing wrong, tone wrong etc. so that is where I am at present.  Composition not great, I was tired when I set it up, the light kept changing from sunny to cloudy.  I will focus on getting the windowsill better.  Difficult to see what I am doing against the light. Colours in this repro way too bright, particularly the blue and red of the shed.

Painting experience for me is proving to be rather different from my anticipation, it has its own energy and flow.  I am definitely feeling more confident.

Worked on things on windowsil (3), and made it darker, then lightened it again (4) but made the area at bottom darker (5). Can't see from these pictures which are wayj too blue in colour but general effect is more balanced and the outside bit shows up better.  Result after much despair.

Version 3

Version 4

  

Version 5

Much too blue on phone pic, but I altered it yet again today (Version 5) just lightening the windowsill loosely.  I think this is final version. I like the movement in the paint on the windowsill, it picks up on the external view. Composition always an issue with this one.