Part 3, Project 2 Exercise: Exploring greens outside

I have definitely got into the habit of carrying my painting things around me, whenever I think I will a) be seeing a different view to the ones where I live and b) will have the time to sit for an hour to paint. We made a spur of the moment trip to York so the paints came along too, fortunately I have a lovely bag which is large enough to carry an A3 sketchbook so I had no excuse not to have my watercolour things with me. As this exercise was about painting greens outside I spent some time in the gardens of York Minster where there were some beautiful early spring greens, together with dramatic shadows to be seen.

Out and About paint box and notebook

I tend to worry when I am out of the house with my watercolours that I do not have an adequate range of colours to use. I was pleasantly surprised on this trip just what I could make from the limited pans in my smaller set by simply applying the theory used in exercised 1 and 2 of mixing greens.

Initial sketch of York Minster, trees, grass and shadows

Given my viewpoint the two trees and their shadows were dominating my eyeline with the Minster being on my "horizon" I found the quick pencil sketch really helpful in creating a framework for my to lay my paints into.

Stage 1

 For stage one I painted the lighter tones of green, a combination of sap green and lemon yellow, which was quite a yellowy green for the areas where the sun was very much highlighting the grass and the small mound to the right of the right hand tree. I also painted in the stone tones for the Minster stonework.

Stage 2

In stage 2 I introduced the mid tones and greens, even here I was careful to ensure there were a range of greens used as the grass had a really variegated appearance when looked at carefully. For the window areas of the Minster I used viridian, dark blue and alizarin crimson to darken the tones as I do not have a black in my travel set, I think this is working out positively though as I think this is teaching me a better approach to colour and tone rather than simply muddying a colour with black to darken it.

Shadows and Sunshine - York Minster

 Finally I added the shadows using a combination of sap green, cadmium yellow and dark blue. Initially the shadows looked like roots, which I wasn't really happy with, so I decided to paint into the page with a watery brush to remove the definition. I then added in the swathes of purple and yellow crocuses which were bathed in sunlight.

Learning Log Notes:-

• I think the strongest aspect is the grass, I think I have managed to capture the softly undulating nature of this piece of land.
• I think the weakest aspect of this painting is the background - the Minster. I think given more time I would have liked to have built up this image tonally spending more time on the minster roof and the texture of the stonework, I also feel that I have not adequately recreated the brightness of the sunlit day - an element which was key in creating the stunning shadows on the grass.
• I think the green grid has been key in my approach to the greens, particularly with regards to the introduction of blue or red to darken the tones, leading to such great range of clear and clean tones, rather than just darkening with black.