I’m calling this one finished. I again adjusted some values and colours and reached the end. I know when a painting is done when I’m holding the paintbrush and can’t find anything else that needs more paint. My paintings are supposed to look like paintings and not a photo and it’s important to know when to stop.
I still have things to do. I need to flatten it first then have a chat with the owner to see how it will be framed or protected and hung. But the painting part is done.
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.
