Tuesday, December 03, 2013

The washy layout...

 
Snowy Farmyard     9" x 12"    o/p
 
I began the layout or composition of this painting with a loose wash of ultramarine blue and alizarin. This wash concentrated on the large overall shapes (sans details) of the buildings and some of the cast shadow areas in the foreground. The washes at the same time were dark and light in their values. The visual effect at end of this stage was that of a continuous half tone not unlike a "washy black and white  photo". 
 
The next stage was to introduce the local colours to the main objects in the painting while the initial wash was still 'loose'.
While applying the final colours, they picked up the 'ground colour' which helped to moderate the final colours. I liked this effect. In other areas, the colour was laid down close to and around the objects in the painting, leaving the 'red' of the ground colour separating some positives and negatives. 
 
I found this method during the course of painting to be very intuitive and helped to keep the painting as a whole rather loose and fun.
 
'til next.
 
 
 
 
 
 

2 comments:

MYSTELIOS said...

Very beautiful snow painting !!!

Frank A. said...

Thank you very much, ART-TRAVELLER for your kind comment. Yes, it is becoming that snow time of year. Less painting and more "shoveling". Yuck !!