Reference photo
Early stage
Autumn Walk, Violette’s Lock, 20″ x 20″, UART 320
Yesterday I finished this 20 x 20 painting that I started several weeks ago. I decided to do it, even though the reference photo was not very inspiring–color or value-wise. I’m including it so you can see how little value variation there is in it. (Sorry, I can’t seem to get it right-side up!)
My underpainting was just a lot of color with the tree and towpath delineated. I brushed alcohol on with a big brush and I basically had a brown surface!
There were a number of challenges with this painting. First, the subject is right in the middle. I decided that was probably OK. The towpath and canal lead the eye past the subject to the right so I felt comfortable with it. Second, there wasn’t much of interest along the canal on the left side. There was some kind of rock there barely visible. So I made up some rocks to give a little more structure and interest to the painting. The major problem was the lack of value differences–even sideways, you can see that the only things that stand out are the light towpath and the dark tree. All of the foliage is about the same! So I decided to make the leaves on the tree darker, using several values of deep Ludwig reds. Behind them, I placed various greens and oranges and a blue green.
The picture called “early stage” was what it looked like on Saturday morning when I went to the studio prior to class. I really didn’t like several things. First, the red leaves at top were identical blobs of color! Second, the orange to the right of the man was too extreme. It detracted from the man and his dog, who have to be the center of interest. I resolved the latter issue by placing greens on over, letting a little orange show through. I resolved the first problem by breaking up the reds with a deep blue green. I loved the effect of this! I also decided to try using a rubber blender to “pat down” the leaves in the distance to set them back and give a more dreamy quality to the scene. I finished the lower right corner yesterday morning and make a few more small changes, then let it go. I decided that this was the type of painting one could work on forever!
It can be hard to do paintings that have no sky. The sky opens things up and provides a lightness that’s missing when all one has are trees. But I think that the light on the towpath gives the painting some cheeriness and leads the eye to the man and his dog. (And, by the way, this dog was really easy to do! Not much more than a few strokes and I had the back of a collie!!!)
The man’s coat in the picture is a black and white check. I had thought about making it red. But I instinctively picked up several violets and liked the relationship between the man’s coat and hat and the rocks to the left. I’m happy with the balance of color. Interestingly, when he walked by me, he said “not much color this year.” I watched him go and realized I had the perfect subject!