I thought I would show you this process. I used it with my last failed attempt.
This is the view down my street
I liked the yellow maple halfway down the block do I cropped it to reflect my interest in that big yellow branch.
So I painted that. The trouble is that I used 5 different kinds of yellow and that I saw it moving horizontally. I tried to scrub out some yellow but there was too much pigment on the paper and it came out like a big blob of yellow. So that’s where I was stuck.
So, remembering my recent attempts with ink resist and getting ready to make it sacrifice sheets, I decided to make some adjustments to leave some black and use gouache on certain leaf groups, and just cover the whole thing with India ink. I waited for it to dry and then washed it off. Everything got washed out so I went back in with watercolor and repainted it trying to use more vertical groupings along with the horizontal. I used straight gouache to provide more resistance to the ink, so that might have been my issue with the hibiscus painting. It has more drama than the original so it might be worth all the extra effort. It was fun painting all the leaves though.
I like the depth you achieved on the leaves with the gouache. Also like the texture from the washing off process. Your painting is much more interesting to look at than your source photo.Maybe I would add some color variation in the tree trunks and branches in the foreground to create more depth,but otherwise it’s a pretty cool painting.
ReplyDeleteI love process shots! And I think it was worth the save. I like the texture and richness of the leaf masses and the yellow seems to glow even more against the darker sky and trees. Looking at your reference, I might have cropped a little further back to include the bases of the tree trunks, and maybe darken the trunks and branches even more, but I'm glad you went in for the save. It's good.
ReplyDeleteI can't follow your process, but I like the result. The yellow leaves are better separated now. Still too crowded in the lower part but the sky is swell. I like that pebbled look.
ReplyDelete