landscape composition class

               

                     4x6 value study

Taking another 4-week Zoom class at the Chesapeake Fine Arts Studio. This one with Susan Lynn on composing landscapes.

We take one photo, make 2 or 3 1.5x2" value sketches using a very soft pencil; then translate those into watercolor value studies.

I am enjoying the process, and hope to use it in my plein air painting--where, traditionally, I just jump in and paint what's in front of me! With, not surprisingly, very mixed results!

Below, the two watercolor value studies I did: one emphasizing the foreground, the other the barn.

This is my value study from last week: everything gets darker as it comes forward. Kind of blows my mind that I'm only "learning" (in a methodical way) this stuff now. I excuse myself by saying I was having too much just watching the paint move to learn anything. I guess in some way I knew it, I had observed it ... but turning it into a principle that can be used to help me paint better paintings? That's new.