Assignment 3 Landscape Painting from mixed sources

Assignment 3 Landscape Painting from mixed sources

Winding Path

The above painting is the painting I have carried out using the mixed sources of sketches, colour work, linear drawings and photographs as reference material. This scene is was photographed and sketched at a location close to my home. It was a fairly damp drizzly day and I think this is reflected firstly in the photograph (see bottom of blog post) then finally in my painting through the use of muted colours. The light was fairly strange in this location - in the distance were bright fawn/cream dry grasses, which are also present in the foreground. There was also a very fresh cool green in the new leaf buds which are just arriving on the hawthorn trees, however the browns of the tree trunks and branches and the ivy growing on one of the trees are definitely cool browns.

Looking at the photograph and back over my sketches I decided that an initial wash on the paper was not going to be appropriate on this occasion as the light that was coming through the gaps in the branches was very bright so I wanted to retain the crispness of the paper,  however thinking through my approach to the painting I decided that I would use masking fluid to ensure that the very pale grasses and elements of the stepping stones remained just that, as I knew I would be unable to create such a light tone through watercolour over darker washes! It is interesting the way that the process of brushing the masking fluid onto the paper quite briskly has picked up the texture of the paper, I think I need to remember this effect for future paintings a it seems to really give a natural feathery effect (this can be seen more clearly on the close up photographs below).

The process of sketching my scene before commencing painting really had given me a great grounding to prepare my composition and enable me to really look. I found that the sketches drew my eye to the arrangement of the stepping stones which someone has laid for when the path is really muddy. In my first sketch the stepping stones dominated and were pretty much central, however as I looked and looked again the stepping stones moved to the correct position of left of centre.

It was really one of my aims with this painting not to fall into what I see as a personal trap of loosing the life of my painting when I spend longer on it. Reviewing the painting in light of the preparatory sketches and comparing them with my previous "laboured over" paintings I am reasonably happy that I am starting to move in the right direction. I think the decision not to commence with any kind of wash was the correct one as the watercolours have remained fairly crisp on the page despite the layers required with the tree branches to give the feeling of depth and distance.

Winding Path - Close Up

Comparing the painting back and forth to the photograph I suppose it could have stood for some more darker tones to be added, however I had decided my approach to this painting was not going to be to aim to "copy" the photograph, but to create a painting that is based on the photograph and sketches.

Winding Path - Close Up

Winding Path - reference photograph