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