Today, I had the opportunity to really practice a few things I have been grappling with the past few weeks. Thus, I took the opportunity to paint another semi fantasy piece. I imagine a lonely watchtower complex guarding a small village community in the middle of a mountain valley pass with the grey misty clouds rolling in from one direction and a small brook emptying to form a small lake.
My main challenges were:
- Lighting a Form in colour. To have a well lit subject, it seems to work best if there is a side that is also in relief/shadow. (seems obvious until you ahve to paint it instinctively and wonder why somethign is too overlit)
- Ice and permafrost - Its great to do more snow and ice work
- Mood, Fog and Mist - the great thing about sombre landscapes in UK is they make for moody images. Here, in contrast I went for a more eastern influenced saturated happy happy coloured approach initially with elements of a moody desaturated grey in the background. The two do not probably mix well (the colour and value information may tend to end up as coloured mud) but worth a shot. Not living if you havent tried.
- Brickwork - I had fun trying to paint suggested brickwork and peeling paint
- Painting shallow water - Learning how to make thigns look wet, is certainly a ongoign challenge. I decided to submerge part of the pathway, becasue it looked more interesting for the subject matter (and just for the heck of it to get some painting exercise out of it as well).
