Work In Progress: Withlacoochee Flight, Update 1

Work In Progress: Withlacoochee Flight, Update 1

            Most of my nature paintings are of scenes outside my home state of Florida, either in the Appalachians or other far off, but equally appealing locales. However, there are some very beautiful natural areas here in Florida and I decided it was time to do a painting of one. A few weeks ago I was looking through some photos I had taken while boating on the Withlacoochee River. There were two that were appealing, but one offered interesting reflections, perspective and depth, as well as a mix of trees and grass that I liked. It looked like a good start.

112 Withlacoochee River Update 1

The scene was interesting, but I wanted I wanted to bring more life and motion into it. What better way than to introduce some native birds – egrets. I found some photos of egrets in flight on the web and downloaded a few in various flight configurations. I then copied them and inserted them into the original photo, moving them around and changing their sizes to see what patterns I could come up with. I varied the sizes and positions of the birds to make the overall composition more interesting.

112e Update 1 112f Update 1 112h Update 1

To introduce a focal point or center of interest (COI), I greatly enlarged one of the birds and placed it near one of the sweet spots – near the intersection of two lines that divide the picture area into thirds both vertically and horizontally. One of the compositions seemed promising.

112h Update 1

Although the latest compositions seemed to be getting closer to what I wanted, there still seemed to be a problem. The converging lines of the trees and water, as well as the line of birds, seemed to draw the eye off the painting to the left side. Something was needed to stop the eye from passing off the painting. I thought that a grouping of trees on the left would help. I looked online once again for cabbage palms (sabal palmetto), one of the iconic trees of the Florida wetlands. I found some and, again, downloaded the photos, and copied them into the compositions I had settled on. I moved them around, altered their sizes and proportions and fitted them near the left border. It seemed to improve the composition.

112n2 Withlacoochee River Update 1

I now have two compositions that look pretty good. One shows the center of interest higher, with the trees as backdrop. The other shows the center of interest lower, with the wing breaking the line of the water. The higher center of interest is near the middle of the photo vertically, the lower center of interest is closer to the bottom third line – closer to the “sweet spot”. It seems to improve the composition a bit more but there still seems to be something a little off. The center of interest is now low enough but seems to be a bit too far right – too close to the right edge. So, I move the bird over left a little, nearer the converging lines one third of the way up from the bottom and one third of the way in from the right. Ah, that looks better. The center of interest looks a little bit too large, so I make it just a little smaller. I like the change.

112q Withlacoochee River Update 1

Now, I want to see how the values look, so I convert the photo to black and white, then blur everything to simplify the shapes, and deal mostly with values. Everything seems good. The birds seem to show up well, the grouping of cabbage palms keeps the eye from wandering off the picture, the birds are of different sizes and configurations, as well as positions, and there is one bird set off by size and position as a center of interest. That bird is near a “sweet spot” and its white body contrasts sharply with the dark background.

112q2A Withlacoochee River Update 1 Values

As a final manipulation, I blur the color photo to simplify the colors. Once again, the birds show up well, especially the center of interest, whose white color contrasts well with the green background.

112q3 Withlacoochee River Update 1 Color

All I have to do now is develop a color sketch so I know what colors and color combinations I’ll be using. I’ll discuss that next time.

Posted in Uncategorized.