Work In Progress: Glade Creek Grist Mill, Update 5

The Color Sketch

After working up a number of color sketches, I believe I’ve come up with one that looks good.

When I looked at the photo something about the sky caught my attention. It was very subtle, but it was there. The lightness of the sky just above the background trees suggested a very light yellow color. I don’t think the yellow is really there but every time I looked at the photo, I got that same impression of a very light yellow – as if the sun was off in the western sky, not real low, maybe late afternoon. Maybe that was just my mind working, but I decided to include it in the painting – and I think the effect is nice. I put in the sky first – a light wash of new gamboge wet into wet. Then, I did a graded wash of Windsor blue wet into wet, down into the new gamboge.

I wanted to keep the colors on the cool side, and then play them against the warm highlights on the snow and the sky. With cool on my mind, I mixed a cool gray with windsor blue, new gamboge and permanent rose, tilting toward the violet, to wash in the background trees. I washed in a darker combination down behind the bridge and the Mill.

The color of the snow was not an easy choice. Many artists have used cobalt blue or ultramarine blue. My first attempt included cobalt blue but I wasn’t happy with that blue, so I switched to windsor blue. For me, the cobalt blue was a bit too grainy and strong. I wanted the blue to be smooth and uniform and the cobalt blue didn’t seem to work that way for me. I’ve always been partial to windsor blue, especially for sky color, so I decided to use it for the snow as well. Since I had already used it for the sky, I wanted to be consistent. Keep the palette limited and use the same colors for all the mixes.

For the entire area of snow I first washed in very light tints of new gamboge and permanent rose. I did these washes separately, wet into wet, making sure the paper was dry in between. Then I went in with a final light tint of windsor blue, mostly in the areas where there would be shadows. I left the sunlit areas devoid of any blue.

After the under washes I started back over the shadowed areas with a combination of windsor blue and burnt sienna I built up washes of this same combination to strengthen the shadows.

The trees and shrubs were hookers green, yellow ochre and windsor blue in various combinations. The tree trunks were windsor blue and burnt sienna.

I mentioned in the Value discussion how much the Mill stands out because of the light roof against the darker background of the trees. Now that I’ve added color it stands out also because of the warm browns against the cool blues of the background trees. The Mill colors are burnt umber, burnt sienna, raw umber, yellow ochre and windsor blue. When I do the final painting I may change the look of the Mill a bit from that shown here. I want a bit more gray in it, to give a more weathered look.

I still have a problem doing color sketches. My nature is to make detailed paintings. Even when I’m rendering color sketches there’s a part of me that’s looking critically at the detail in the painting. I have to keep telling myself that the purpose of the color sketch is not detail or final composition, but the relationships of color within the painting. How well I’ve rendered objects in the color sketch is irrelevant. The focus is color. Details are for the final composition. Whenever I become too focused on detail in a sketch I stop, get up and walk back away from the paining, viewing it from a distance. I also turn the light off and look at the painting in subdued lighting. Sort of like squinting. That way, I look at the overall arrangement of colors, not at how well I’ve rendered the Mill. Color sketches are meant to be quick and loose, so if I’m not happy with the relationships, I can go on to the next, without having invested a lot of time in details.Yes, color sketches is an area I continue to work on.

Now that I’ve done my color and value sketches I’m going to work up the final composition – put in the detail! For this I’ll work up some pencil sketches based on the original idea sketch and the photos. I may want to add more trees, grasses, branches, shrubs. I’ll add more detail to the snow. Ideas and changes are a constant. Even when I’ve started painting I’ll think of something else to add – or something to remove. It’s an evolving, changing process from beginning to end. After the final compositional drawing, I’ll start painting – at last!

 

IMG_1275 Update 5

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