Part complete
1 How successful is this painting in terms of overall effects? The effect I wanted seems to have worked out. I like the way the man made large gate and the electric fence intrude on the countryside while the tree and wild grasses appear to be retaliating. the effect. I think there is just the right amount of them to give the desired effect, which would have been lost if I had zoomed in much further.
2 In terms of composition I think it is also successful. The sloping diagonals forming triangular shapes from background to foreground, link up and balance with the gate and the tree. The fence posts also act as a link between the gate and the tree.
3 The tonal relationships appear to work out okay as well as far as I can tell. Maybe the foreground grasses on the verge would look better as little less dark. I made the hilltop lighter than in the photograph so as to give more aerial perspective. Perhaps the horizontal bars on the gate could be a little darks, then the foreground grassy area might not look as dark.
4 most of the colours appear to be quite true to the photograph, except the dark green in the foreground grass looks browner than on the photograph. Possibly the inclusion of a brighter green such as sap green would have helped.
5 The painting looks more finished and less spontaneous than a painting I would have made outdoors. The main reason being that I had more time to spend on it.
6 most elements are very much like the photograph apart from where I reduced or removed some detail from the hillside in the background and from the field behind the gate, as I decided there is enough detail in other areas without adding more when it was unnecessary.
7 Where the painting does resemble the photograph I think it is a bonus because that is what I wanted to achieve. I used a kind of shorthand to represent certain elements like the texture on the gateposts and the hedgerows and buildings on the hillside rather than trying to include every detail, which I would have been very disappointed about.
8 I had problems trying to emulate convincingly the pastureland behind the gate and the comparatively wild looking rough grasses on the banking in the foreground. For both I built up some texture in a few layers wet on wet and wet on dry. The foreground was most problematic and I used various tools such as a screwdriver to try and resemble darker grasses to the left but I couldn’t see how much I had overdone them until the paint dried. I think I also went a bit too dark with this area. Most of the the area was in silhouette, I should have allowed for this and made it lighter to compensate.
9 I think it would have been a help to me if I had gone back to the same spot to check on the problem areas and done one or two quick studies of them in isolation before finishing the painting, to try and become more comfortable in handling them. The light conditions could have differed from when I took the photo so this may not have been a true representation of what was there at the time of the original phtograph, but the images from the camera to the computer screen to the printout may well also be out of balance so it really is a case of getting a result that one is happy with.
10 I knew my painting was finished when I became aware that if I tried to do any further fiddling with an area I would run the risk of making it look overworked. Unfortunately I didn’t see it with the foreground until it was too late to successfully undo it.
11 Limitations of the exercise were that the only form of reference was one photograph and no other preparatory work such as sketches and colour studies were involved. I think working from a photo is good when it is only used as a back up to sketches and colour study, in order to check certain things.
12 There is a big difference between working indoors from a photograph and working from direct observation outdoors – even from the confines of a car seat. I felt more relaxed painting indoors from a photograph as all one’s painting equipment is on hand and there is more time to plan what approach to take in relation to arrangement of tones, colours and other effects. One can take more time over things without having to worry about changing light, approaching darkness or worsening weather conditions etc.. However, I usually prefer most of all to work from direct observation indoors on a still life or interior, for me this is more often than not the best of both worlds.
ainewatercolouroca 