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| First painting |
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| Revision 1 |
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Tough doing this one, but surprisingly today it started to work. Did version 1 (above), main thing was to get the outside area blocked in and it has begun to look OK. Then decided windowsill needed reworking, drawing wrong, tone wrong etc. so that is where I am at present. Composition not great, I was tired when I set it up, the light kept changing from sunny to cloudy. I will focus on getting the windowsill better. Difficult to see what I am doing against the light. Colours in this repro way too bright, particularly the blue and red of the shed.
Painting experience for me is proving to be rather different from my anticipation, it has its own energy and flow. I am definitely feeling more confident.
Worked on things on windowsil (3), and made it darker, then lightened it again (4) but made the area at bottom darker (5). Can't see from these pictures which are wayj too blue in colour but general effect is more balanced and the outside bit shows up better. Result after much despair.
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| Version 3 |
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| Version 4 |
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| Version 5 |
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Much too blue on phone pic, but I altered it yet again today (Version 5) just lightening the windowsill loosely. I think this is final version. I like the movement in the paint on the windowsill, it picks up on the external view. Composition always an issue with this one.
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| Greyscale photo |
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| Charcoal drawing |
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| Tonal sketch |
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| Starting in colour |
This is the toughest thing. It is so different working with paint rather than a drawing medium. Much quicket. I like the tonal sketch, but doing it in colour a different story. Colours here exaggerated, but whole thing loses its sense of mystery and depth. We shall see as I work on this piece. Such a struggle to be patient with the colour mixing. Too much blue in top area, the shadow in barn should be darker, even if it is not in reality. Have another two or three hours allowed in the project for this one.
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| Stage 3 |
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A bit of time on this today after break in London, looking at paintings...My job is to look and look again until at least I get the basic drawing and tones right. But may find I need to manipulate the tone a bit to make the background view more dramatic. Sooo difficult.
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| Stage 4 |
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Lightened front area and area on right, had a go at the dye pots on the table, did something on the background/see through, area on right still wrong. will do more on that before stopping on this one. Area about door needs work too, more gradation. Area on right to work within overall balance of lights and darks. At present it looks too light, really it is the central part above the paper rolls that are wrong. I have not looked carefully at that area.
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| Stage 5 |
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This photo not really quite right, but made some adjustments. Enjoyed doing the dye pots and the things on the right and on the shelves. Will set up still life pieces alongside project work. Quite pleased with this. Felt clearer today, more relaxed, took my time mixing the paint and looking at tones. The green paint above door very important. I like the pink splodge on the apron. This was a pretty complicated subject and today it started to come together.
This only started to happen after about four hours altogether on this piece, once I had got the main areas of tone and colour in. I could have developed it a lot more, but willl draw a line for now as per the OCA book. Really pleased, unexpected result. Yesterday felt pessimistic about this. But with some tweaking it started to come alive. Working on right area section, the section above door and the jars.
