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Saturday, September 1, 2012

A Rare [for me] Landscape

I've always loved this photo of birch trees that I took last year in the park. The shadows on the ground and on the trunks are so beautiful.

Initially, I tried spattering with a toothbrush and spraying, but didn't like the effect, so I tried again with sponging. 

Then I went over the entire leafy are with the lightest color I'd used, a leaf green by da Vinci watercolors.

I started some foreground w/w washes of two mixtures,  using quin. gold and phthalo blue.

This is basically what the foreground grasses look like. I find I don't have the patience to play with Photoshop to correct hues.

Studio light.

Day light

The entire painting is actually warmer, more intense, and the green is not so shocking in the foreground grasses. Anyway, this foray into landscapes was fun. I'll do more in the future. I'm not sure about attempting plein air, though - I really like to have everything there where I expect it to be, and without bugs, glaring sun or wind.

As always, your comments are most welcome. 

4 comments:

  1. A beautiful reference photo, Kathryn, but a difficult one with all those light and shadow effects! Sponging looks like a good idea to paint the leaves. Looking forward to the finished painting!

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  2. Looks really good to me and I agree with you about plein air :)

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  3. This is going to be beautiful, Kathryn. I can't wait to see your next post.

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  4. I love that you showed the step by step process of your wonderful art :D

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