Yesterday I was out in the woods. I like to sit amongst the trees and paint, with the little bugs running up and down my legs and the breeze wafting the branches of the trees to its own special rhythm. It was a sunny morning, and I had with me my new camera, so I decided to take a picture of the painting as it progressed.
I started with pencil, having an idea that I wanted to keep a white circle of light in the top right-hand corner:
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| Pencil underdrawing |
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| A mix of light yellow and sap green for the light on the leaves, putting in shadows with Payne's Grey |
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| Close up view of the green and gray. I use water to get tonal range |
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| Working in a further level, Payne's gray admixture with the other two colours |
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| I work into the trees with Raw Umber and Burnt Umber . The next step is to get rid of all of the white where I don't want it. |
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I use blues. This can look a little startling as you do it, but it will not all be so dazzling in the end.
I don't want it to be all green. |
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| I use oxide of chromium to damp down the dancing blues and work on achieving the tonal balance. |
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| Finally a mixture of rose madder and ultramrine will go into the trees to change the hue. I like to put a little purple in at the end. |
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| This is a photo of the same view. |
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| This is my paintbox. |
