Monday, December 22, 2014

Late fall with fog

Late morning, the temperature is still cool, not warming up very quickly.  Damp air with some lingering fog. Yet there is a small opening in the clouds and warm light makes its way thru to bathe at least one tree with warm color.
Photo reference.
Small color comps.
The painting in progress.
The final painting 14 x 22.




Saturday, December 13, 2014

Fall color

I've been working on a series of paintings, attempting to capture the color of fall. Today, December 13th, is gray damp and foggy outside. The trees are leafless, and there are patches of 1/2 melted snow on the ground.  In contrast, this painting has some very intense color. 

This is a series of color studies I created digitally, loosely based on photo reference I had taken this fall. As I worked thru the process, I became more focused on graphic shapes and color, and less on texture.

That direction carried over into the oil paint color study. I'm not thinking about painting trees, grass, and sky as much as I'm painting shapes, values, and color.

Moving on to the final painting, this is the drawing blocked out in acrylic burnt sienna.

Next I refined the shapes with thinned oil paint.

More thin paint in the foreground elements, and thicker paint in the sky.

The final painting 11x14.