Part 3, Project 1 Exercise : Sketches from different viewpoints conts

continued from previous post.....

Exercise : Sketches from different viewpoints. For this exercise I worked on A3 Paper, using half of the page.

Pennington Flash 22 March 2013

View 3 Painting 1

The blizzard had started again as I moved onto the third view. The perspective is not a true 90degree rotation as this would have meant me simply painting the door of the car next to me so I shifted position slightly. As the reality was that there was a car and a snack van in my vision I decided to include them in my painting. I have continued to use blue tones to give the cold feeling that was starting to creep into my toes! I don't think I dawdled quite so long on the final two paintings.

View 3 Painting 2

before beginning this painting I had a look through the paintings completed so far and realised I seemed to end up with the majority of the tree shape being cut off to allow me to fit in more "landscape", so I decided to  begin with the tree shape for this particular painting and let it dominate, as in truth the trees were dominating my view. I have focussed more on light and dark and shade for this painting, focussing mainly on the trees allowed me more scope for detailing on the trees in a fairly short period of time.

Learning log notes after carrying out the the painting from different viewpoints exercise:-

• I think I was attracted to the first viewpoint as there was nothing "man-made" interrupting the scene, only trees, water, grass, shrubbery and sky were visible in the first view - the wide openness of this view appealed to me. There also seemed to be a pleasant balance of foreground, sky and water which  I felt would make a balanced composition.
• I felt the trees were the most important aspect, however as I painted the scene I quickly discovered that when painting the composition the background shrubbery was the most important component when creating the painting.
• Its hard to think about special qualities present in my chosen landscape. I think both of my paintings from View 1 have different qualities, I think with painting 1 I have captured the solitary nature of the group of trees, yet with painting 2 I have captured the colour and mood of the landscape.
• I think my first study has a more spontaneous feel, I was fresh, still fairly warm and ready to undertake the exercise, on review I can see that more thought and care has gone into the second painting in the preparatory washes. I spent a lot longer on the foreground of the first painting - I am not sure that was really necessary because when I spend less time on the foreground the trees seems to far more naturally grow from it in the second painting.
• The changing light was not really a factor for me, it was grey, dull and blizzard conditions for most of the time I was there, no sunshine and few shadows, other than those thrown by the trees.
• As I moved onto the different viewpoints I felt that the scenes were more cluttered (snack vans, bins, noticeboards, other vans etc) I did not feel I was able to compose the scene to suit me, or what I felt I wanted in my view.
• I think it was harder to work on the other scenes, I think simply because I felt I could not consider and ruminate over the composition, I had to paint what I saw rather than compose a pleasing view.
• There have been a number of learning points for me as a result of this exercise firstly I need to ensure I have the correct kit with me, I did not include a large wash brush which was frustrating as I think that wasted time. I learned that despite the lack of time when painting outdoors its still very important to ensure washes and backgrounds are completed properly as this forms the basis for the whole painting, short cuts can't be made and are not worth making! 
• I think I need to work on simplifying my paintings - when I review them afterwards I have the impression of trying to include too much, too much detail in all areas on the first and third views. I think I was able to simplify the approach quite well for view 2 - and I think this is reflected with two less cluttered paintings here (I did leave out the bin and the signpost)
• It feels to me as though I am not creating a correct impression of my view if I leave things out - its feels somehow wrong, but I can see in the direct comparison of the two paintings of view 3 the benefit of leaving out the clutter in the second painting, and focussing more on shape, tone and line than lots of detail.
• I do think this exercise could help me to locate a place to paint in future by accepting that I no not have to include EVERYTHING I see into a painting, and also by forcing you to look at other aspects and not to jump immediately to the first "view" that I think is "nice" but to consider how light, dark, toneshadow, distance and foreground are all key elements that would contribute to my overall composition

Part 3, Project 1, Exercise: Sketches from different viewpoints

Exercise : Sketches from different viewpoints. For this exercise I worked on A3 Paper, using half of the page.

Pennington Flash 22 March 2013

I packed all of my painting things and a hot water bottle and some blankets into the car ready to embark on my outdoor painting. Its unseasonably cold and miserable at the moment so I decided I had the option of skipping this section of the course for now or trying to make the best of it. I have managed to complete the indoor/outdoor exercises at home however I felt that at least painting in the car was preferable to delaying the the "Sketches from different viewpoints" exercise indefinitely.

My mobile painting kit

The first problem I had was realising that as a left hander I would need to stay in the drivers seat and set up my painting kit on the passenger seat, not ideal as this left me with the steering wheel which at times proved awkward as a surface to lean on! Conditions at Pennington Flash were pretty grim, cold, miserable and blizzard conditions on and off, and generally the outlook across the water, sky, trees and landscape seemed uniformly grey.

The first pair of paintings :- View to my left

Painting 2 View 1

For painting 2 I decided to wash out my colour palette a little more and add more blue to cool the warm greens down. Looking back at this painting now that I am home I feel that painting two does better reflect the light and colours that were evident at the time of doing the painting. I focussed more on the background before commencing on the trees and enjoyed creating the hard edge where the water meets the scrub-land by allowing more of the wash to pool at the edge of the wash line. I then used two tones of wash to give a more variegated effect rather than an all over uniform wash, as the landscape behind the trees simply wasn't uniform.

I found it quite difficult to create the effect of the water, had I had more time to spend on each painting I would have been able to paint the ripples in individually, instead I just tried to create the movement through the use of horizontal lines.
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Painting 1 View 2

I think I spent longer than I should have on this one, but I think my eyes were refreshed by the move to a different view! There seemed to be more of interest in the distance with this view, and there was also the warm red of the dogwood bushes and different light on the trees which meant I was able to translate the colours a little differently. I kept the lines of the washes quite clean to create distinction between the different areas of the landscape. I painted wet into wet for the dogwood and the tree branches, to try to create movement as it was blowing a gale!

Painting 2 View 2

For this second painting of view 2 I decided to focus on the tones and paint tonally using a mixture of viridian and cobalt blue. I mixed a darker wash for the shapes on the horizon, then softer tones for the foreground, I think this is the first time I have been frustrated with my camera since returning to the course! The photo above does not give a clear impression of the clear blue tones in the actual painting.

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Part 3, Project 2 Exercise: Mixing Greens 2

Exercise Mixing Greens 2 - Page 1

I found the instructions for this exercise far more straightforward! Although I can really see the value of this particular exercise in demonstrating how the layering of colours worked I have to admit I was a little disappointed that this approach did not seem to give particularly well mixed tones - or a range of different hues. Despite being layered one over another the colours did not blend particularly well. I think to summarise page 1 - I was happy with the mixed boxes, yet the rest did not leave me with a range to work with.

Exercise Mixing Greens 2 Page 2

An early lesson learned here with page 2. I decide to move from working on my 300gm "expensive" paper as there is not much left in the pad to my 130 gsm pad. The way the paint went onto the paper and was immediately absorbed had a detrimental effect on the outcome of these experiments in my opinion. Frustrating the paint was absorbed into the paper, making the wet sample difficult, yet took forever to dry! I persevered through four different colour combinations then gave up and reverted back to the better quality paper. I think from this I have learned that I am going to get the best out of the watercolours and see the best possible effects by using the better quality paper - even for "test" pieces. The watercolours really did handle differently on the poorer quality paper.

Exercise Mixing Greens 2 Page 3

On page 3 (above) Prussian Blue created some warm dark greens which I wonder is more to do with the texture of the paint? This particular watercolour pan seemed to have a grainy texture when applied to the paper which leaves an interesting look when painted over the yellow - but not as effective as when used as a base for the yellow.

Exercise Mixing Greens 2 Page 4

For page four I returned to the better quality paper, and had a bit of a revelation here  Having been disappointed about the range of greens being produced through the exercise I found that Indigo gives a really beautiful range of greens when washed over gamboge hue - this was my final experiment, but well worth the effort - see bottom right of above photo. I think this is a colour combination worth me returning to at some point.

Part 3, Project 2 Exercise : Mixing Greens 1

To begin with I found the instructions given in the course material utterly incomprehensible! I could see clearly form the diagram what the aim of the exercise was yet the method to get there seemed as the order of the individual statements was all jumbled up. I have to admit this exercise really appealed to my precise and ordered side! I loved progressing through and filling the boxes with a different hue each time. I did have a number of thoughts which I noted as I went along, firstly the vibrancy of the tone achieved by using a tiny amount of viridian with lemon yellow was amazing, to my eye it was almost like a manufactured colour and I was thrilled to see how I could really create that tone using the colours in my set - I enjoyed all of the tones through that first set and realised that by using "one brush full" to add to the viridian I could evenly regulate the grades of darkening tone. I adopted this approach with the rest of the tests and It seemed to work throughout. I also found that regularly changing my water kept the accuracy and authenticity of the colours enabling me to create a true paint swatch for future reference.

Mixing greens Exercise 1 - Page A

Another colour combination which I really was surprised about was the stunning combination of burnt Sienna and Viridian, the warmth, vibrancy and depth of this tone was simply stunning, and I already think I will be referring back to the mixing notes here to recreate those tones.

Mixing Greens 1 Page B

After completing the exercise using the colours recommended in the course material I moved on to experiment with some combinations of my own including Hoopers Green Light, Cadmium Yellow Pale, Intense Green, Emerald Green and Hookers Green Dark. The use of cadmium yellow pale seemed to create fairly pale yet saturated colours, some that look fairly manufactured, but also some that have depth of tone such as the combination of cadmium yellow pale and hookers green dark.

Hyacinth30

I have decided to press on with the idea of creating a painting a day for a period of a month. I think that using this as an opportunity to refresh my watercolour skills is the best way to view it. I considered painting different household objects each day, perhaps in a range of colours but then realised I might be better to focus on one THING then find different approaches to painting this one object. I chose a hyacinth in a glass growing jar. I feel that this best epitomises my passion for gardening, nature and colour but also has some challenging aspects and interesting surfaces due to the transparent glass and the change in perspectives. I think that as the hyacinth dies and decays I will be able to capture that process, but I also have 30 attempts at getting the same thing right!

I have set up a blog page http://hyacinth30.blogspot.co.uk/

And am uploading the photos to my Textiles Facebook Page http://www.facebook.com/MiriamWardTextiles

Part 3, Project 1 Where to look and how to select

Exercise:  Inside and outside

For this exercise I worked on an A4 scale.

View From Inside 

Firstly I looked carefully at the view out of the window, it was raining and everything in the garden seemed to emanate a warm orangey yellow, reflecting the orange brick of the house at the back and the garage of our neighbour. I decided to try to recreate that warmth by washing the whole page with a warm orange and yellow toned wash. the exercise asked me to look at and consider the palette  I could see tone of green, green grey, green yellow, warm brown through to very dark brown and some vibrant green, on the structure of the greenhouse.

After the initial warm yellow orange wash I added washes in the separate areas which I had blocked out lightly in pencil - to be a base for the colours to come later.

I then continued to work colour into the painting, adding darker and darker tones in layer, particularly for the fencing and the bare soil. I also added layers to try to achieve the hard edges of the stones, and to try to gain depth of colour. It was at this stage that I realised I should have omitted the wash from the "roof" of the greenhouse a I then struggled later to lighten this area, which in context with the rest of the garden which was softer and more muted stood out as a bright hard surface.

I decided that the best way to represent the tree and to complete the painting was to emphasise certain areas with brown ink. Now that the painting is finished I am not very happy with the finished effect - I really don't think the brown ink works, it seems too thick and heavy for the painting. I used paint splatter to represent the raindrops sitting on the branches of the tree I do quite like the way this turned out - and will bear it in mind for paintings incorporating blossom.

When I went outside to look at the painting with the original setting as its background I was fairly disappointed - the colours, particularly the green looked unnatural and and too vibrant. I enjoyed painting the painting but I think it has certainly shown me that I really need to refresh my skills in painting with watercolours "technically" and to remind myself of the various skills and methods available to me.

View From Outside

Well painting outside was certainly an interesting experience. I waited for a gap in the rain as I wanted to get both paintings in this exercise done on the same day to enable me to draw a direct comparison between indoor and outdoor painting. having stationed myself outside I realised that even sitting directly in front of the window I had been sat behind meant a completely different view! The light and tones were so different. It wasn't very warm either, so the motivation to work quickly was certainly there. I again began with a warm orange yellow wash and forgot to leave out the greenhouse roof again (very frustrating). I then worked fairly quickly blocking out areas with muted washes as bases to build tones in layers.

I found that I automatically adopted a very different painting style, out went the desire for accuracy and precision and in came a far more relaxed and organic approach. The washes were not wanting to dry in the damp air, so I decided to just accept this, and worked into the damp areas with more pigment to deepen the colours, while being careful to leave any gaps with white showing through in place. I think using this more hurried and "make do" approach I have ended up with a painting that has more energy and does not look overthought or overdone. the darker areas such as the soil are not as dark as they appeared when I was indoors, I think I may have been sat a couple of feet lower when I was outside meaning the light will have been settling differently in my eyeline.

Daily Focus

Having gathered together all of my materials for returning to Watercolour Practice I am feeling really enthused for tackling Assignment 3. I have read through the entire assignment this afternoon, and think that painting outside is going to be quite a challenge, however I am very fortunate to have a garden so I think I will be able to do much of the study on "green" based on different views. I am also hopefull I will be able to steal some painting time while we are off on long bike rides....when the weather gets better!

A few weeks ago there was a post on the OCA blog which really captured my imagination

http://www.weareoca.com/fine_art/discipline-and-daily-focus/


I am very taken with the idea of practising my watercolour painting on a daily basis, simply by capturing a quick painting of something around the house or garden hopefully I will be able to refine my technique and gain more actual enjoyment from the painting process. I have decided to set myself the challenge of completing one painting per day for thirty days, rather than attempting to undertake a year long project.

A friend lent me the book The Tao of Watercolour and I am also hoping to work through this in any spare time I might hopefully have.

Returning to Watercolour March 2013

Its time to get back into my watercolour course. After moving house and completing Textiles 1 Exploring Ideas I am ready to get back into this course, and see it through to the end. I have found that the key issue here has been my inability to study the two courses alongside each other, I also find that with watercolour painting I see it as part of a process toward creating a new Textile piece - I think I need to start to accept it and view it as art in itself.

I really do enjoy the watercolour painting processes, and am looking forward to immersing myself in the final three Assignments - I think the first stage is going to be clearing away all of the Textiles "stuff" then pulling out and reviewing all of the Watercolour material and my tutor reports for the first two assignments.