Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Spring Flood 10" x 12" Oil/Panel
Well, here we go, back to the limited palette. For this painting I decided to go with Ultramarine Blue, Cerulean Blue, Alizarin Crimson, Cadmium Yellow Medium, Lemon Yellow and Titanium White as my palette. This palette should brighten things up for spring.
As you can see, the panel was prepared with a final coat of Alizarin and Cadmium Yellow Medium combination preceded by two coats of gesso. Finally, I wiped the panel with a paper towel to even out the colour coating and to help expose the texture of the gesso.
After roughing in the composition with the darker combination of Ultramarine Blue and Alizarin, I painted in the lighter background colours. For example, the lighter background trees and their lighter tops. These lighter colours helped to make the middle ground dark trees to 'stand out' and at the same time 'push' the lighter colours behind them further into the background. This was planned in the layout or composition at the beginning. The right side of the painting has a larger and darker mass of trees that was worked in with the darkest colours, and enhanced with the lighter greens of the odd branches. This larger mass of darker (impression) foreground trees, along with the bright greens in the lower front of the painting helps to establish a solid foreground. The impression of the water was then added.
Hey, great black fly weather, eh ?
'til next.

11 comments:

Unknown said...

Very nice. I love the warm underpainting. By the way, what advantage do you see by using both Cad Yellow Medium and light? Just wondering.

Frank A. said...

Jeremy, Thank you !
Looks like I fumbled the ball here and you recovered it... thanks for catching that.
What I ment to say (since corrected) was, 'Lemon Yellow', a 'cool' yellow when compared to a warm Cad.Yellow M.
Glad that you saw that..Thanks again.

Unknown said...

Hi Frank,
Your explanation is very clear . I love your choice of colors and your pre planning starting with the gessoe and the coloring of it. Is a great oil with a happy radiance to it. Just got to love it! The scenery is breathtaking as well.

Frank A. said...

Hi Mariano..Thanks for your comments. Always appreciated. Sometimes when I think things are turning out okay, I begin wishing that the panel was bigger. Never happy I guess. ... :-)

Take care..

Unknown said...

Ah, got it. That makes sense.

D's World said...

Lovely palette! Honestly!:)

Frank A. said...

D's Poetry..Doina, Thank you very much. Your compliment is appreciated.
I realy enjoyed your poem, "Dear Grandpa".

Do take care. :)

D's World said...

Thank you so much ,Frank! You took me by surprise -- I really had no idea you were a visitor of my blog!
Thank you for your kind words:)

Jennifer McChristian said...

It's amazing the array of colors you can create with a limited palette.
Beautiful painting!

Frank A. said...

Jennifer..It is a pleasure to have you visit my Blog. Thank you very much for taking the time to comment. Your compliment is really appreciated.

Take care..

Cesc Ginesta said...

I have no idea how I came to view this blog, but I liked it. Whenever you learn the more you know, and this, is you.
Congratulations for your work and as he explains.
I've become an admirer of yours, will follow you.
Congratulations on your work, I've seen here today and I can imagine finished.


Cesc