Bird & Sunrise photo

Bird & Sunrise photo
Because "someday" is today!

Thursday, November 30, 2023

A Tale of Two Kayaks

Dipping deep into the wet landscape.


 It's November and another free class taught by artist Chris Fornataro becomes available. I almost didn't sign up again because there is so much to get done in putting the garden to sleep for the winter and Thanksgiving just around the corner, but at the last minute I decided I really need the practice with landscapes.

Mangroves photo ©Chris Fornataro

Again, I wasn't exactly thrilled with the reference photo, but I knew from the last class in March that it is still possible to end up with a decent painting even with a less than inspirational photo.

Big values, big shapes!

The first lesson was breaking the landscape into large value shapes and not getting stuck in the details which is great practice for me. I already like where this painting is going better than the photo.

The details can really drive you crazy.

Here it is with all the steps completed, but the water reflections and getting that illusion of sand underwater in the foreground didn't look right to me.

Sometimes less detail is more.

I decided to forget the sand under the water and make the side canal more still and reflective, but I'm still not certain this choice was an improvement. ??? 

One of Chris's tips was to remove detail and add more blue grey color to the background trees to get a deeper sense of depth on the painting. You can see the difference between the two paintings above, I found that suggestion was very helpful and I loved how that little change made such a difference. 

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Paddling a kayak and taking photos is difficult.

Next I decided to challenge myself to see if I had really learned the skills from class by painting from a photo I took of Jeff kayaking Sept of 2019,

Mapping out where you want to go is important.
First step, start with a value sketch. Second, adjust the design to feature your main focus. I wanted to showcase the sunlight through the trees and also extend the land more than the photo so that I could practice adding visual depth.

Structure holds up everything.

Blocking in the shapes, I added an extra step by adding an under-painting of yellow and orange just because I wanted to try it out.

Wow, that sky is not right!
Adding the darker colors of the water and trees went well, I wasn't too keen on the sky and had to go back and fix that!

Finally, some visual balance.

The sky is much improved, but the water reflections don't look correct to me yet, too bright, the lake water isn't that choppy, also not enough shadow on the vest or kayak.

Early morning bliss.
Greying down the water reflections and adding shadows to the  vest and kayak helped a lot, but I still don't think the water looks right. Obviously I need more practice understanding how to paint light on water.

Overall, I'm thrilled with most of it, I improved on the photo, I got the depth and "atmospheric perspective" looking pretty good and I resisted the urge to do anymore detail on the trees which is a big win for me, "Miss Fiddle-brush."

I'm glad I did the class, even though it was very similar to what we did in March, I know the repetition really helped some concepts sink in for me! Practice makes progress...

Happy Creating!

>^-^<

Tina

Here's a sample of Chris's teaching style on YouTube: Click to watch 10 Tips to Improve Your Landscape Paintings

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love the way you lay out the step by step process of producing your paintings, Tina. Love the outcome, too!

Anonymous said...

Miss Fiddlebrush!🤣😂😉 Your attention to detail is what separates you from mediocre to professional! It reminded me of my graphic design teacer saying that they're never satisfied with their work... At the time I thought, "How sad!" And yet I found myself rowi g in the same boat/kayak!! I fund myself so proud of you and your quest for perfectio , Tina! Thank you for sharing... You are awesome!