Saturday, February 23, 2008

(6x9)


Same scene as yesterday, but from a little further away. I left the roof snow-covered this time, but may have to go back and paint it dark to correct the perspective on the roof: it's really distracting to me.

Without getting into comparisons, I'll just say, looking at these both, I think yesterdays' shows the optimum distance from which to view this barn: close enough to make a bit more of the planes and shadows. Scale of objects in the picture frame is a thing I have no feeling for whatsoever (and maybe why I like Egon Scheile so much: he's the master of that and placement on the page); it's hit or miss. Which is okay--I can do another.

A nice thing happened in the sky: I used my Schmincke pan set to paint this and yesterday's painting (Laura on Laurelines had a post about them awhile back, and I got a set; I thought at first the choice of colors was a bit strange--there's no what I would think of as a pure blue--but the consistency of the paints is wonderful: they go from being bone dry to being very juicy in no time). I started painting down from the top with Prussian blue and a lot of water; then, halfway down, in the middle, I brushed in some helio turquoise, which shot up into the wash above it. It was really fun to watch!


Jan Hart, in her book (see sidebar), writes about organic and inorganic pigments; the organics run and push other colors, whereas inorganics tend to stay put ... Something to be more aware of.

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1 comment:

Mineke Reinders said...

I love that effect in the sky... Helio turqoise is becoming part of my standard palette both because of its hue and because of how it reacts with other colors. I love Schmincke, too, got really spoiled when I lived in Germany, where they were widely available AND quite affordable.. Their line of gouache are better than anything else I've found as well.
I really enjoy your snow scenes, Laura, they look so much happier than the tired old snow around here...