I wanted to do a landscape painting but I didn’t have a reference photo that I wanted to paint. So I took pieces of a few photos I took of the Mississippi bayous and cobbled together a sketch that contained parts of some photos that I liked certain pieces of.
Then I used the sketch to make a normal watercolor on 140# coldpress. It’s 16 X 12. There are things I like about it and things I don’t but that’s true of most of the stuff that I paint. I might not be done but I don’t like it enough to spend a lot more time on it. Sometimes there’s an alligator on the bank.some of the shadows are from ripples in the paper
I like the sketch better than the full painting. It has a lightness and liveliness to it. Also, I like the compositional balance better--the second one seems to need something in the right. Or maybe the fence is taking me out of the painting? Originally, I thought the rocks on the sketch looked like sheep and was worried when you mentioned alligators. Good luck with your hip! Hope you're up and painting soon.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the sketch is livelier and more interesting. That looks like a little dog in front of the fence. And there’s nice variation in the trees instead of the dark mass in the watercolor. However I do like the sky and the water is the painting, sort of a sunset on the bayou… Hope your surgery goes well and you are soon pain free! I love my new hip!
ReplyDeleteI'm going to differ with my colleagues, I much prefer the second. I like that strange orangey green color and the force of the fence and that darkness on the other side of the river though it looks like that outcropping is sinking into it.
ReplyDeleteYou are correct sir. The sketch was prettier but the second has the feel of the bayou. But there are things that I would change and maybe I will.
DeleteThe sketch feels more alive while the painting seems a bit too heavy and somewhat distorted.
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