I took this idea out of my sketchbook and painted a Yupo version. It’s 6 X 12 and I think I’ll try an even larger version later.
This one is trickier so I’ll show a little timeline to show what went wrong. Here’s my reference photo. I liked the sparseness and cold of the Lake Michigan shoreline.
The version in my sketchbook captured that feeling.
In the Yupo version I got carried away drawing trees and forgot what I was supposed to be painting. It’s fun for me to make trees but that wasn’t the main reason to paint this. I tried adding more branches but that made it even worse. And you can’t wipe ink off Yupo like watercolor so I was stuck with it. Where the foreground in the grain elevator painting gave it a sense of place, it is wrong here. Also lost the feeling of big mama tree with little offspring that I was trying to depict. Now it’s just a boring late autumn picture. I’ll try again later but I have other things I want to try now.
I like the details you added since we last saw the elevators. That fireplug is inspired. Reminds me of that scene in the movie about Turner where he is at an exhibition with other artists and he approaches one of his paintings and adds a dab of red paint to a buoy in the foreground. Wondering what you will add to the even bigger painting.
ReplyDeleteI like the first painting of the trees better. It looked kind of lonely, but now it looks like they are having a party, also covers much of that lovely sky.
But, you have to notice how well the bark is done.
DeleteI have to agree about the sketchbook trees looking better than the yupo version. It has more of your intent in it. I like the elevators a lot. I like the fireplug but would maybe have placed it further left.
ReplyDeleteThe fireplug is a bit obnoxious, maybe it needs a dog to lighten it up. The rest of the painting looks grand. You're right about the trees. The first one captures what you wanted and the second one misses the point. Oh well. Maybe a fireplug would set it right...or a dog.
ReplyDeleteYes, the tree sketch works, but overall you need less foreground and more sky detail…punch up those clouds! The grain elevators are monumental…and look at that great sky!
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