Saturday, December 3, 2011

WIP of Portofino...


This is a work in progress based on the Italian village of Portofino. I enjoy taking a real life village and using it as a starting point. You can see the photo i used on my lap top. This painting will be 17" X 44" when done. So far it is coming along nicely and i look forward to adding the dark areas which bring a watercolor to life and make those whites and light areas pop. Adding little bits of complimentary color nearby also helps. Hope to have the completed piece posted soon.

6 comments:

  1. Oh Ross, just look at the neatness of your space. This is going to be a fantastic painting. the kind I know your capable of doing and can't tell you how happy it makes me to see you back ... Barbra

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  2. Thanks Barbara. I chuckled when you said my space is neat. It does appear to be so but the camera is not showing behind or beside. It is pretty tiny.
    This painting is nearly done so i hope to post soon. Have a great day. ross

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  3. Thank you for showing a WIP. This is actually really helpful for someone like me who is just learning. I look forward to the finished painting!

    You don't have a "contact me" email on here, so I apologize in advance for using this forum to ask -

    Your snow always looks wonderful and so I thought I'd ask you what colours you reach for to render snow. Is there a set of "go to" colours you use or does it depend on the mood you want to create and the lighting you are using (full sun, cloudy, night etc).

    Also, if you are rendering snow in full daylight, how deep do you go in the darkest shadows -- medium value?

    Blessings, Crissy

    PS Thank you for your kind visit to my blog too and for the very uplifting comment you left for me!!

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  4. Wow, what a size that is! Loved the sneak peek - its looking good. I love it when it gets to adding darks also. In fact, sometimes I paint the shadows first! xx

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  5. Hello Pat and Crissy. Thank you so much for your comments which are always so appreciated. Pat i sometimes love to get to those darks as well. I think it really helps to put them in at the beginning so we can have a target sort of as far as values go. Such fun.

    Crissy, i will try to attend to your question here and send it to you directly also.

    I will often use Cobalt blue with Perm. Rose. A light violet mix leaning toward the blue side of things. I try not to mix a pure color on the palette but let the color mix on the paper. The value i try to achieve would be mid to dark for a bright sunny day. This would make the white bits of snow that much brighter. I will also try to incorporate reflected color on the snow such as the light from a window if a night scene or the color of the house nearby.

    My other favorite color choice is Cerulean blue with a tiny touch of cad red light. Very tiny touch as cad red is so powerful and opaque. This gives you a lovely blue/gray.

    You can lay in the color loosely and lightly at first. Once each wash is dry go back in with a bit darker color towards the bottom of your shape finally putting in the delightful little darkest of dark areas around the base or in spots under lumps of snow or say the base of a tree. I usually use several passes. Maybe 3 or 4 again depending on the effect i am trying to achieve.

    But i do try to adjust according to time of day as in night/morning or mid-afternoon. I think it is always different depending on the mood i am in, (smile) or the painting itself!

    I will use Ultramarine Blue sometmes as well with Perm. Rose or for a gray blue use Ultramarine blue with a light orange. With this mix you can have some pure orange in spots for sparkle as with any complimentary pairing. I find ultramarine can be a bit too intense though and use it sparingly or with plenty of water.

    Hope this all helps and makes sense to you. Thanks for asking. I was most honoured indeed.

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  6. I am just looking at this work with my jaw wide open!

    Shakespeare declared...
    'All the world's a stage,
    And all the men and women merely players'

    If that is true I want to switch my role right here :)

    Thanks for sharing this and your other gems!

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