Whenever we get cabin fever during shelter-in-place Covid-19 orders, we get out and drive, and explore new bits around us. This was in a split-level park, with different plateaus connected by walking paths. Here, a bit of ground cover at the edge of a level, butting up against the spring mustard blooms. Not exciting as far as scenery, but a pleasant little neighborhood park we had not seen before. Well, sort of a neighborhood park – 30 miles away!
Addendum!
This is the second scan from the final one below. I changed a bit of the elements after doing a preview scan – don’t know why the one on the bottom of this post is so, er, intense!
Now, let us continue . . .Â
More perspective studies! Today I did a single point study.
This time I created a single vanishing point. This one is below the building, and above the road. The idea for this is that the road ends up going over a hill or slope before the horizon, at eye level, is met. I did a pencil sketch and erased it a billion times. Finally, when I liked what I did, I erased most of the lines after inking it in.
Sort of a value study combined with a color study to see what I might like for color mixes in watercolor. This paper is mixed media paper, so it is not the heavy Arches 140# cold press I like for most work. I think the perspective works pretty well.
Well! Aren’t these colors intense! The scan for some reason just came out like this – the original is a bit more subtle – but I rather like it as I think it expresses the intensity of color that sometimes comes with lowering clouds and a storm. Makes me think of my time as a kid on the plains of the midwest.
So, the final study does have decent architectural perspective, and perhaps even some atmospheric (lots of atmosphere, but more like pressure type!) insofar as I tried to simplify things.
I will continue my focus on perspective, and using it in different media. Watching videos, referring to books, and just doing it is helping.
Another perspective study from hell. Where do you put the vanishing point on paper where the horizon doesn’t provide one!?!
I used 2 point perspective here for the most part. To figure this out, I drew the basic sketch onto a piece of paper that was larger than the final sketch. I decided my horizon line. Then I drew the building, uprights and then angles for the roof line and base of the building, both on the left and the right. For the wall, I did the same thing, aiming it at the horizon line and trying to get the top and bottom to line up.
Ummm. Not sure. It looks okay in a lot of ways except for the wall – too wide nearer the building perhaps than it should be in the lower left foreground.
And getting into perspective. I don’t have depth perception – eye docs confirm this. But I do get distance – I can guestimate a distance and when it is measured, I am pretty accurate. This makes me think that a sense of distance and depth perception are two different things entirely.
If you follow along here at all, you know two things about me. One is a lack of real depth perception. The next is my ongoing struggle with perspective. I have learned that my poor drawing – sloppy drawing, really – due to impatience – ruins a lot of my attempts at perspective in paintings.
I have decided to work on perspective, particularly architectural perspective. That means buildings! As a country girl at heart (no cowboy hats, though), I like the idea of buildings in a non-city setting. No skyscrapers for me. Instead, a boat house, a farm house, a barn perhaps. A building along the waterfront, even suburbia. Why? I want a few trees and some water.
This is the first in a bunch I intend to do to really work on perspective. Looking at things dead on is easy, but looking at something with angles is different. Also, looking down on something from above, or upward from a low vantage point.
Here, gouache. This took hours. About an hour drawing and probably three hours painting it. It works to a degree. All this for a 5×7 painting!!
The thing is more than anything is to just get out there and do it, no matter how icky it turns out!!
Yesterday was Painting Disaster Day. I suppose it had to happen after a couple of good rounds. It was also nearly 100F, and even with the air conditioning on, I was hot and cranky, and that doesn’t make for good focus. Anyway!
I took this photo last month, and rather like its moodiness. The dead leaves and bright new leaves create interesting colors while the trunks create interesting lines. The first attempt to reproduce this painting in some form or another began with pastels, then gouache, and finally watercolor.
This pastel painting is rather clumsy, but I have found in doing these kinds of series that usually the first one, in whatever medium I am using, is always the starting point. I learn more about the picture as I paint it. 9×12 on Mi Teintes paper.
This is the second in the series – a small 6×8. What I did differently here than my usual gouache is I used Arches hot pressed paper and worked to keep my gouache paints thin (cream consistency) and moist while I painted. The smooth paper and smoother paints made painting a lot easier. It turned out pretty good!
Finally the watercolor. This is on the reverse side of another painting, on 16×20 Arches cold press watercolor paper. As both pastels and gouache allow for opaque overpainting of other colors, by this time I had a pretty good idea where light and dark were and could plan ahead. I used frisket on the tree trunks and in areas where the leaves are hit by the sun. Keeping these areas masked off let me apply broad washes across the paper without losing the shites.
Altogether, I am pleased with this series. I think I may redo the pastel painting as I have some new pastels to try out! Meanwhile, I am looking for some buildings for my next triad (or “try-at”) of paintings.
Ink, Yarn & Beer 