Three Sisters Redux - Day 3 (and a quick plein air study)
Here's today's progress:
Three Sisters, Day 3 - 4.0 hours
Only 30 minutes today, but that’s because I went plein air painting! (And did some sketching and whatnot.) Here’s the plein air study:
Shady Copse – Day 11 (and a quick study)
Here’s today’s progress on Shady Copse, half an hour:
Shady Copse – Day 10, 8.6 hours
And here’s quick 1.5-hour study of a marsh. Working on foliage and whatnot. Also trying to make the sky glow.
Marsh Study – 1.5 hours
Shady Copse - Day 9
0.7 hours today. Trying to simplify a little bit, as well as introduce some variation in that line defining the edge of the field behind the trees.
Shady Copse - Day 9, 7.1 hours
Shady Copse - Day 8
It's getting to that point where I should probably think about stopping; otherwise I'm liable to overwork it like crazy. Another hour today.
I might want to consider cropping it. Not sure yet. I'd either have to take a little bit off the bottom or a lot off the top.
Shady Copse - Day 6
Another 45 minutes today. Added some more color into the foliage and also started defining this foreground tree a little bit more. Sadly, there were a lot of chores that really needed to get done, so I couldn't stand at my easel and paint all day.
Shady Copse - Day 5
Another half hour. Need to stop trying to do All The Things so I can focus on doing art! But it's hard to give things up, so I keep trying to do it all...
Shady Copse - Day 1 & 2
Yesterday I did an underpainting with sumi ink:
Then I added yellow ochre pastel on top of the underpainting, and brushed that with rubbing alcohol to produce a toned surface:
And today, I started going over that underpainting with other colors, trying to stay loose:
So far, I haven't yet added any actual green; I'm just playing with color temperature. Not sure whether I'll add green in the future or not. More next week, or perhaps this weekend if I feel particularly ambitious.
Melting Snow - Day 14
Three hours, and although I swore to myself I'd finish this today, I'm still not sure it's done. Of course, at this point I've saturated the tooth of the paper so much that I can't really do much more. Wish I were more skilled at knowing when to stop. Probably should have stopped the other day. But it's no use thinking about that now. Maybe I'll just call it done and start something new. I don't have to make frame-worthy art every time. And I can always crop it!
This photo came out a little on the dark side (probably because it's getting late in the day, and there's less light in my room than usual); those dark blues are not quite so dark in person.
Melting Snow - Day 11
Alas, I didn't finish it today as planned. But I did make more progress!
Melting Snow - Day 10 (and a random experiment!)
Didn't work on Melting Snow long today. 20 minutes, maybe. Tomorrow's my big day to work on it -- my goal is to finish it tomorrow. I just wanted to make some headway, get back in the swing of things. Gotta remember that even if I totally screw up the foreground, the background is still salvageable!
Another reason why I didn't spend all that much time on this piece today is because I played with the pastel ground I created yesterday!
Yesterday, I dry-mounted a piece of scrap calligraphy "warm-up" paper (it's covered with random letters, phrases, and practice strokes on it) to a piece of foam core with a dry-mount adhesive sheet and a clothes iron. Then I coated the sheet with a layer of transparent matte medium (to prime it), and brushed on a coat of Golden pastel ground on top of that to make a toothy surface that would accept pastels. It cured overnight, and today I decided to play with it.
It was fun! You might, if you look closely, be able to make out phrases from The Lord of the Rings. The script I've been working on is called Carolingian. I've been posting my hand-scribed edition of the book here. Later today or tomorrow I'll post the next two pages...the party has finally begun! Very exciting. Anyway, here's the result of my random carefree experiment:
Melting Snow - Day 7
0.8 hours today. More work on the ice and water. It's going to take awhile to get it right.
Melting Snow - Day 5
Another 0.6 hours today. Subtle stuff this time -- the changes aren't nearly as dramatic as the past few days have been. I worked on the water, starting to (attempt to) make it look reflective. I need to learn/remember to be patient...the last piece I did that involved ice took 30+ hours of meticulous work. Tomorrow I'll start from the back and work my way forward, carefully adding detail (as needed) to the ice. I certainly won't finish that process tomorrow, but I can certainly start it.
Melting Snow - Day 4
Only 0.6 hours today, but at least I followed through on my resolution to work on this piece every day this week. Three days down; two more to go! It was an emotional challenge to break out the sticks and start working with them on top of the pan pastels; I was worried about ruining it all. Once I move from pan pastels to sticks, I can't go back because they saturate the tooth of the paper too much.
But now I've broken that barrier. I started laying in some whites on the ice, and I think I like how it's going. Now that I've started, it should be easier to keep going tomorrow.
