Friday, September 24, 2010

Sep 23 - Covering the Canvas with Big Brushes

The painting at this stage looks like a forest fire as I paint with a one-inch filbert. That's because of the high contrast between the heat of the underpainting (mostly cadmium orange and cadmium yellow) and the cool box colors of the misty light I'm putting in on the lower portions. The colors for this part are mostly mixes of burnt umber, thalo green and ultramarine blue and white. I had a brush full of thalo green when I put in the shape of that "C" on the midground left--it's a marker for the structure of how I want your eye to travel through the painting. Later it will become more subtle. Can you trace your visual path from the lower left (water) through the gentle "S" curve up to where the sun will come through the trees? That's called "leading the eye" and is a good way to welcome your viewer into your painting.

The secondary interest is in the stream area, with primary interest on the mare and foal under the tree in the upper third. Varying the way I hold my brush creates the many different marks for visual interest, too.

Thank you for ordering the new DVD set! I'm filling orders this morning. I'd like to ask the first folks to evaluate the whole shebang as a favor to me for the web site. If you get a slip of paper in your DVD box with this request, know that I really would appreciate your thoughts. I do welcome any reviews, of course, but these first ones are really important!

The latest DVD "Twilight and Misty Light" can be purchased HERE.
My workshop schedule for 2010 is HERE.
Color System information can be found HERE.
If you need to email me directly, please click here.

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