Comparing the reference photo with the painting I saw the trees and some furniture shadows needed darkening. The dark values are what gives depth and realism. I worked around the painting darkening a lot of the values. It’s harder to work with your youngest grandson painting beside you (snow day after yesterday’s storm).
The shadows were darkened all around the walls and darker areas in the trees added. But most of the session was for details in the furniture darkening values.
Another couple of hours concentrating on mostly the values. To achieve realism the lights and darks have to be right. Many paintings fail because of washed out differences between the lightest and darkest values. It’s hard to judge how dark something like a shadow really is and scary to put a very dark colour on a very bright area. It’s especially hard in watercolours because what a colour looks like when you first put it on is not what it will be when it dries. Watercolours dry 30% lighter than when they are applied. That is why there has to be many washes of colour as I gradually build up the darker values. The other problem with dark values is that the eyes and brain of a person viewing the scene in real life looks different than a photo. In real life the brain adjusts what it sees in the shadows for better vision. A picture records the values really there. That’s why the artist has to make constant decisions about how dark things in shadows should be to get the effect they are trying to achieve.
Most of this session was concentrating on the furniture and shadows on the wall. Still more washes to come.
Today was mostly for the first washes on the trees on the right. I also worked on the shadows on the walls. Still a long way to go. The corners are curling because of all the water soaking the paper but I’ll straighten everything at the end.
Today the focus was on building up layers of vegetation on the trees on the left. I also started the first washes on the trees on the right, did a few more washes on the grass and worked on shadows on the walls.
Work today was scattered all over the painting. I removed the masking fluid on the trees on the left after putting in the dark background. The finished trees won’t look like they have balls of leaves when finished. I had to leave the white of the paper under parts so the brighter green will show up in future layers.
Today was for working on large areas. Layers of colour in foreground and background as well as a lot of masking fluid has been applied to both. That needed drying time between layers and is still in place waiting for more darker layers.
Another couple of hours work today. More fiddly work on the windows, door, and furniture then starting to block in where the trees are going to be so I can start painting the shadows on the cottage before putting them in.
It’s getting harder to name these posts. Maybe I’ll start using the date.
Today I worked on the first washes on the furniture working out where everything is. There is still so much to do that I pick what areas to work on depending on how I feel that morning. LOL. Towards the end there is no choice. You work on what isn’t finished or needs correcting.
Slow going today correcting wrong angles on table and chair legs and working out window spacing.
I worked on the roof, the shadow under the roof, the shadow behind the stairs, and another wash on the grass. Those washes have to dry before I do more. I’ll be putting the first washes over the trees on each side soon to block them in.
Right now I’m blocking in first washes in some areas, second washes in others, and started finding where shadows are falling in still other areas. Still a very long way to go but once the white of the paper is covered it is less daunting. The main thing to get right at this stage is the values, not the colour.
Second wash was put on some areas and first wash on others the sky in the middle will mostly be covered by trees and leaves in the finished painting. It just needs to be there to be seen between the leaves mostly. The paper is still wet there and buckled but will even out as it dries.
I applied the first of many large areas of colour washes but these will take a few hours of drying before it’s safe to put on the next layers.
This commission has been sitting on my easel for far too long. It will be the last commission I do. From now on I will paint for shows or just for pleasure. It is a full sheet (22 x 30”) and will be watercolour. It took forever to do the drawing and figure out how to paint the lattice work and shadows under the siding. I was able to do those so that it is finally dark enough to see something on my post here. The green tape around it is holding it onto a backing board while I work on it.
