PROJECT 1: WHERE TO LOOK AND HOW TO SELECT
EXERCISE INSIDE AND OUTSIDE
My first exercise was very difficult for me to start because when I looked from my kitchen window, all I saw was a lot of bushes, and trees including apple trees and cypress trees. All the greenery blended together and I did not see each object as an individual. I focused on the electricity poles to help me build the composition in the picture.
Another thing was the weather conditions; it was cloudy and there was no sunlight so I didn’t see the contrast between light and shadow. Instead i only saw the different colour of the trees. This was a difficult challenge for the third exercise. When I went outside I had similar weather conditions but I didn’t see any great changes in my viewpoint because my kitchen window is on ground level so i had the same viewpoint. I decided to move about a couple degrees so I had access to a more open view that I could see from my window. I painted a slightly different view in the same weather conditions. On another day, I looked outside of my living room window at 8o clock. This is the time where there is very strong yellow light coming from above in sunny conditions. All the fresh greenery appears in yellow mostly. From my living room window i have a view of the estate gardens and the hillside.
After i quickly went outside and painted some quick colour studies. In this case the viewpoint changed because I am unable to see the whole thing because i can only capture the front line tree. The sun came up so the light changed to less of a yellow tinge.
EXERCISE SKETCHES FROM DIFFERENT VIEWPOINT
For this exercise I didn’t go far from my home; I went to the graze land near my house. Mostly I had an open view to each direction; only in one direction was there a forest. I did 5 paintings in each direction. I had a few problems during that exercise because when I started working, the light changed every few minutes because it was cloudy. I had a problem with keeping the brushes and paint clear as I was working fast. On some pictures I saw old trees and I think I was too influenced by looking at that old tree. I was too concentrated on the shape of the tree rather than how to connect this elements with the whole painting. When i finished the small painting, I reworked some of the views on a bigger format. I am happy with the pine tree forest painting. I tried to catch interesting light coming into that forest and build it in natural shape of the pine tree.
EXERCISE SUBJECT CHOICE
For this exercise I had a couple choices. One was the Lord’s bridge on the estate where i live. I spent a lot of work on this bridge during my drawing course and I tried doing water colour techniques as well. Another thing on the estate was the big old trees. I cannot describe what type of old trees they are so I painted two paintings with them in. Then I decided to paint a gate to the gardens. I am not happy with that exercise because I am unable to keep the colours clear and I also used too many layers so the colour becomes opaque sometimes, especially in the gate painting. I paid too much attention to the drawing detail rather than the paint.
PROJECT 2 PREPARATIONS AND PRACTICE
EXERCISE MIXING GREENS 1 and 2
In that exercise i followed all instructions. I used sap green, deep green, phthalocyanine green and pale green with lemon yellow, gamboge, cerulean blue, cobalt blue, ultra marine blue, yellow ochre and burnt sienna. I also tried to achieve different greens by using lemon yellow and cerulean blue, yellow ochre with cerulean blue, burnt ombre with cerulean blue and also ultramarine gamboge, yellow ochre and burnt sienna mixing with ultra marine. I achieved a very rich and interesting pallet of colours and I learnt how to achieve different kinds of greens in mixing different colours. I am happy with that exercise. I can now use this as a guideline to next exercise.
EXERCISE MIXING GREENS 3 AND 4
I did a couple of tries of painting a green bottle of wine. I tried to find some different greens and some had more brown green and some more light green. Observing the green on the bottle was difficult because I placed everything on the window sill and sometime strong light came in and therefore changed the tonal valuation changed. At this point I am not being consistent to doing this exercise. I did not strictly follow instructions because the first part of exercise asked me to use a layering method and another part using a different mixture of green to achieve darker or lighter tone but I cannot concentrate on the topic because I just wanted to capture the light and green I could see at the moment, no matter what method. So you can see my work on the bottle when i put another layer to achieve darker tone. I mixed different kind of green together.
EXERCISE EXPLORING GREENS OUTSIDE
For this exercise I sat in my garden again, and I tried to achieve different greens. In this exercise I don’t use any different colours; I only concentrated on the green part of my garden so I tried to build a shape of bushes and trees using only greens. I carefully observe how light builds the structure of the trees. I also tried to make the colour accurate. I think in small A4 work I should use more brownish greens not use ultramarine green or blue. In small paintings I achieved a very cold effect using a blue and decided to do another a4 painting without blue.
EXERCISE BUILDING A PICTURE AND PAINTING WITH PREPARED ELEMENTS
This exercise wasn’t successful for me because it was asking me to find plenty of details like doorways, windows, chimneys, roof colours and then painting for prepared elements and use this element to build a picture later. I had a couple tries doing this exercise but I was not able to finish properly because of weather conditions like rain. For my first try I went to a church yard and tried to draw the church where there was an alley of old trees. I tried to do that work but I reckon in all pictures, you won’t be able to see any architectural detail. I realised that it was not the right place to finish it because all composition is dominated by trees so I couldn’t see all the church’s’ architectural details. It was my mistake, but I wanted to find a nice interesting place to build a nice picture but it was not right for this exercise.
I had an idea to not only concentrate on the church but also on the graveyard but when i started to paint all that small details disappear and the picture started to be dominated by trees.
I learned from my mistakes that even if I first saw everything in detail all my tries go to different directions and I built something completely different. Another try was when I went to Easby Abbey. I think that place was accurate to do some architectural detail. Then the rain started to fall so I had to pack up and go home. On small A4 format, I was able to do a quick charcoal drawing and I filled it with paint making a quick colour study. I finish that exercise looking from another window from my home where I have a view of the farmyard buildings. I saw plenty of details like the roof on the old barn. This was a very interesting view but in different weather conditions everything changed, especially the colour of the roof. The roof of the barn is also covered in moss. It also depends on the light illumination because everything changes. I decided to paint this view using one colour line drawing and try to fill it all with all different colours. In this pictures I did not achieve the real colour but when I look at that view and at my picture I think I achieve the right balance of colour, I think tonal valuation is correct. I spent around an hour for each painting. I try to make everything fresh.
PROJECT 3 USING PHOTOGRAPHS
EXERCISE: PAINTING FROM PHOTOGRAPH AND PAINTING ON THE SPOT
For this exercise I chose some photographs that I took near the place where I live. It is the backside of Bolton Hall. I first made a quick drawing using watercolour pencils and then i filled in everything with paint. I tried to observe the natural colour of each element and working from the photograph I had constant light which means I could observe the shadows on the trees and how the reflection of light looks on the trees or walls. I mixed all the colours on a palette and then tried them out on a sheet of paper to see how they look and if they are the right colour.
The next day I went to the same place but I had to change the position slightly as the picture was taken from the road and I had to go off the road to be able to paint freely. I changed the landscape view to a portrait view. I started to paint the first tree and the building in the background without any sketch but by painting simple lines using one colour. I used the dried pallet of colours from the previous day. This is why the colours look quite similar to the previous picture. I made a mistake as I used a blue colour on the sky and did not achieve what I wanted with the sky. I also did not mix the right balance of green colours on the grass and there ended up being too much green and grass on the painting and i think it would look better cropped. After doing the first painting I felt more prepared and confident with using the palette of colours that I did but at the same time I didn’t allow myself to experiment but just did another version of the previous work. I think I could have achieved a similar effect without doing a painting from a photograph first but it would have to be after several tries, so confidence was crucial during this exercise. I wanted to try this exercise again but I did not have time especially as the weather changed not allowing me to go outside.
EXERCISE: PREPARATORY SKETCHES
Before starting this exercise I looked at Mike Chaplin’s short online tutorials on line, tone and colour and was very influenced after watching these. For this reason I wanted to recreate something similar to what he showed in the tutorials. He showed in one of the episodes a river bank with a line of trees and a road in between them and then described beautifully how to build line perspective, how light falls between the trees, how to describe tonal valuation etc. In the place where I live I found a road with trees on both sides so I made a line drawing and I painted something similar. I maybe did not do this right but I was very happy with the effects of the shadows from the trees going into the flat line of grass. I think it is a starting point, if i have more time, to do this in a bigger format making even more observations.
EXERCISE: PHOTOGRAPHS FOR SOURCE MATERIAL
Since I can remember I have been taking photos and I have a family so most photos are family shots from holidays and days out but when I have time I also document things that I find unusual. I photograph objects from different viewpoints and as I enjoy this I have purchased a DSLR camera with two different lenses to make this easier. I also enjoy testing and trying out the different programmes on the camera. At the moment I have a rich documentation of different elements such as trees, grass and stones and I have photographed practically everything around the place I live. I have analyzed all the tips for taking photographs and I feel confident that I can use the photographs I have taken in my work.
Before I started this part of the project I returned to the book ‘Late Turner Painting Set Free’, which I purchased during my visit in December in London where I had the opportunity to see the work of one of the most famous 19th century British painters Turner.
At the exhibition we could see his works from the last 16 years of his life. According to art specialist these works were the most dazzling innovative works that we can see. Most of the work was very spectacular and experimental. We can see some innovation and some work was unfinished and leaves illusion of abstract work. In some of the work we can see how Turner uses his own technique to achieve watercolour effect. All of the works were exceptional but I have a feeling of dissatisfaction because I was not able to see how he managed to create the work. Some works especially the unfinished ones 30-60 seconds of work with a brush and seem to be unreproducible even with hours of work. I can learn about colour and composition but I am unable to know how he actually painted.
I looked at material about Ruskin and Ruskin Schools of Art and I analysed his theory about observation of detail and everything I read seems very classical and a gentle and beautiful way to describe things. At this point I was not able to come close to these masters. When I was painting I was trying to fight with a demon that was trying to make me look at building the composition and finding the colours in a way I normally would with oil paints. Watercolour is a respected technique which I keep unravelling all the time. I have a feeling I keep making steps forward but then going back and I think this is due to the tempo I am working at as I want to do something quicker but I am not yet prepared to do it. Watercolour demands great discipline from me but I am not sure if I am yet ready for it and I know I will have to fight off the demons to work with watercolour like I would like to. Overall I like watercolour but this part of the course was hard as I had to work outside and you can’t foresee everything.
73 Kisiel OCA My Blog 