Morning Light

16x20
Oil on Canvas

This was a very ambitious picture for me. I have never painted something this large, (16x20) and I tried the technique that I learned from the Susan Sarback workshop. However, she said never to use a photograph, but that’s what I did.

The photo was taken from far away, so I had to crop it, and enlarge it, and photoshop it a bit to perk up the colors through all the haze.

I tried sketching it freehand on the canvas, but even though I understand perspective, it is not my strong suit, and it was coming out wrong. So I took the photo to Kinko’s, and had it blown up (in black and white) to fit the canvas exactly. I measured it exactly and used a proportion wheel. I put charcoal on the back of the enlargement, and then placed it on top of the canvas, and traced on it like carbon paper. To make the lines permanent, I painted them on with a thin brush and diluted India ink. (In the photo, I am working on another picture. I was doing two canvases at the same time.) After inking, the lines were TOO dark, so I whitewashed the whole canvas with one coat of white acrylic primer. I know it takes at least two coats when I am trying to cover a bad painting, so one coat did the trick. I was so happy with the results, that I think I am going to do this from now on.

Susan’s technique “forbids” you to mix any colors on the pallet. She says to use only the pure colors as they come from the tube, plus white. This way, all the colors are fully saturated, which is why the painting comes out so bright and gaudy. (By the way, I asked her directly is she claims to be a Henry Hensche purist, and she said no. She studied under him, but this is the system that she worked out for herself. She teaches a lot of classes, so she has boiled it down to a formula so that everyone can get it.) I really wanted to implement what I learned from her, so I stuck pretty close to what she taught.

First I did the underpainting. Susan says to use a knife for that, but I used a brush. Otherwise, it would have used up way too much paint. I want to say, I read a lot of Michael McGuire’s blog to also learn from him. He says he uses a brush for the first two layers, then he lets it dry for two weeks, and then uses the knife. I thought I would try that. It worked well for me.

I laid in cool colors for parts that were in shadow, and warm colors for parts that were in light, as Susan teaches. I only used pure colors from the tube, plus white to get them close to the proper value. Susan says not to put down the local colors first, so I chose other colors. If you put down the local colors first, then you can’t build up to them.

After the first layer, I put on a second layer to bring the colors closer to where I want them to end up. Then I let it dry completely for two weeks.

When it was dry, I worked on one section at a time, from the top down. I had painted the sky a warm yellow (lemon hue plus white). In the photo, it was just a flat, washed out white. So I improvised and put some cerulean in the top of the sky, and scattered some pale rose throughout the sky too to give it subtle interest. I put some white towards the mountains, since I knew the photo was taken early in the morning and the sun was low. I did use a brush and I layered it on very lightly and gently, because I wanted the warm, yellow sky to show through.

When the sky was done, I just wanted to stop there. It looked good to me, and I didn’t want to ruin the rest of the painting, but of course I had to move on. Next, I did the far mountain on the right. In the real photo, both mountains were the same color (blah-cool-gray), but I “know” that farther away mountains are cooler, so I made the farthest mountain bluish. I used at least two colors in every section, but oftentimes more. I used the knife from this point on. At first, I was not happy with the blue mountain: it looked like a cutout. So I got some “sky” color (pale yellow), and layered it on top of the blue, and THAT looked good. It looked like sunlight was filling up the air, so I made more sunlight towards the sun. I decided to put the sun between the mountains, even though in real life, the sun was off the canvas off to the left. You can tell by the shadows. (I tried to adjust the shadows a bit as I went along.) I took the time to make the edge of the mountain soft against the sky to give it more distance and glare effect.

I find that when using a knife, I can put lots of colors down on top of each other. With a brush, you have to put it down and leave it. But with a knife, I can fuss around a lot more. If I put the wrong color down, I just put the right color on top of it, and the “wrong” color just adds interest.

When I made the second mountain, I decided to make it more purple-y, to make it look closer. I put sky-pale-yellow on top of that too. I went back over the sky where the sun was and put in some white. I spent a lot of time softening the edges where the sunlight shines over the mountains. I made it all up. The far left of the left mountain looked plain, so I made up some blue and pink areas, but I kept the values the same.

I wanted to quit there too. I was very happy with the mountains and I didn’t want to try anything else. But, I had to finish it. I worked on the distant landscaping next – just working from the top down and keeping all the values consistent. I just fussed around with the colors until I was happy with them. I discovered that cobalt blue plus white makes a good atmospheric perspective for me. I did not move on to the next section until I was completely happy with the one I was working on.

Then I worked on the background landscaping and the buildings. I used a tiny knife for the houses, and for the windows and fine details, I did use a tiny sable brush, like an eyeliner brush. I put the brushstrokes down broken, so they would look like knife strokes.

By this time, I was feeling more confident, and just kept working my way forward and downward, one section at a time. If something was not shaping up the right way, I just layered on some more of the right colors.

It all came out pretty bright, but I see now it is because all the colors I used were bright and “pure”, because I did not dull them down by mixing them on the pallet. I realized that if I painted a painting using only “day-glo” colors, it would come out pretty bright too. Dulling down colors is okay, I just did not want to do it here, because I was trying to capture the bright glow of the morning sun.

I think I have a reasonable grasp on this technique now. Now I need to learn how to tone it down in some places so that I can have a good balance of bright and dull.

Spring Breezes

Oil on Canvas Board
11x14

For this picture, I tried using the technique I learned at the Susan Sarback workshop. She is so good, that I have been intimidated to try it again, but I got stuck with this picture, so I was going to use it “just a little”, but I wound up doing the whole picture this way. I think the chroma is too bright overall, but I am basically happy with it.

This is from a photo I took in the springtime. The colors were vivid, but the photo did not catch that (of course).

I started painting this “normally”, but the sky was such a dead color. I was using Winton cerulean, and when I lightened it, it was just dead. It was like I had mixed it with light gray. So I thought about how Susan said to under paint things in light in warm colors. I mixed up pale yellow, and spread it all over the sky with a knife. Then I got a different brand cerulean (Lucas) and when I lightened it, it was clear and bright. I smeared that on top of the pale yellow sky and it looked great.

Then I decided to use the knife on the gum trees, and I used all different kinds of colors. I was not shooting for a million-dollar painting, so I was mostly experimenting. That came out good enough too.

I had started the grass earlier, but now it didn’t match. I scraped it all off, and saved the green, and I put down yellow. Then I knifed in the green that I had scraped off. The wind had been blowing and the grass was bent over and shimmery. In the photo, it just looked white, but I knew it was reflecting the sky, so I used some of my sky color for it. The whole thing does not look “real”, so this looked good enough for me.

The mustard was the hardest because mustard is so bright and everything else was bright too. So I just did my best.

The thing I learned most was not to be afraid to use what I learned at Susan Sarback’s workshop. Maybe I can’t paint exactly like her, but the technique does a good enough job until I get better at it.

Lake TenKiller, Oklahoma, in December

Oil on Canvas Board
11x14

This was from a photo I snapped last Christmas. My husband wanted to go somewhere QUIET! Since this is a summer recreation spot, it was VERY quiet. We rented a cabin in the “town” of Burnt Cabin.

I tried to implement what I learned from the recent demos I did. I sketched it in carefully on white canvas, and then blocked in the main colors. Working from back to front, top to bottom, I put in the details. I did not do it alla prima, but I let each section dry before I proceeded, so that if I made a mistake, I would wipe it out without disturbing everything. The colors go down so much cleaner when the paint underneath is dry. Also, after letting it dry, I could see where it needed more light, dark or color.

For the lichens on the tree, I dulled down some viridian. I am very happy with how this came out.

Two Trees

Oil on Canvas Board
6x8

This is from a picture I took myself. It is of “Two Trees”, which is a local landmark here in Ventura. These two trees on top of the hill can be seen from many spots in Ventura. The weather is really mild here, so there are fields of cutting flowers. I found these delphiniums, and the view was great, so I took a lot of pictures. You would never know that the freeway is right behind me.

I tried to keep this loose and painterly, like in the demos. I also sketched it first, and then put in the thin base colors. I painted it in one night after work. I am going to try to do more of these “one night-ers”. The mountain was very important to me to get JUST right, since everyone in Ventura sees it. The clouds are bare canvas. It was hard to get the delphiniums without having them bleed into each other.

I am VERY happy with this one, and I am going to try to make more happy, light, bright paintings.

Well

Oil on Canvas Board
6x8

I wanted to do a small painting so that I could do the whole thing at night after work in one sitting. This is an image from the Wet Canvas Image Library. Thank you to whomever posted it.

The picture was taken on a cloudy day, so it was pretty dreary. When I painted it, it still looked dreary. After it dried, I put on a few highlights. They sort of stood out, so I fixed the darks too. That stood out. So I punched up all the colors and made them all brighter. I also added the tree in the background after the mountain was dry. I am happy enough with it, but I am back to my picky style, and not the bold style of the demos I worked on.

Bob Rohm Demo #1

Oil on Canvas Board
11x14

After doing the two Kevin MacPherson demos, I thought I would try one from another book. This was from page 109 of Bob Rohm’s The Painterly Approach. I chose it because I wanted to do glowing clouds.

Bob’s steps of procedure are very similar to Kevin’s: thin quick sketch with Burnt Sienna on an untoned canvas, block in the colors, then paint them. I like blocking in the colors. I was originally taught to do a value sketch with Burnt Sienna under the whole painting. But for me, the Burnt Sienna bled into every color and made mud. By blocking in colors for under-layers, the only thing that can bleed in is more interesting color. It keeps the colors clean, and helps me stay on track as to where I am on the painting.

With Kevin’s pictures, I did the darks first and then the lights. But in this one, I worked back-to-front, top-to-bottom. Then I could work on the edges in the sky and the mountains when they were still wet. But the under-paintings in color helped me keep the shadow areas and the light areas distinct and separate, which is important for making things pop.

I learned that clouds have to be designed and laid out just like mountains and trees. I can’t just toss the paint around and expect things to magically happen. I had to decide, even on the clouds, what was going to be in light and what was going to be in shade.

For the mountain, I did the whole lit part in a light, glowing reddish color (Burnt Sienna, Cad Red Light and White.) I put it on VERY thinly. When it was dry, then I put on the purple shadows and the light snow.

I didn’t do any of these demo paintings all in one day. Usually, the first day, I sketched it in, blocked in the colors, and worked significantly on the shadow areas. The next session is when I would put in the lights. By that time the darks were dry enough that I was not going to accidentally make mud.

Again, when the painting was dry, I went back and punched up the highlights on the clouds and the snow just a bit. I learned that it was a waste of time to paint the lightest lights and the darkest darks while the whole painting was still wet. Anything I put on at that point is just going to “sink in” like quicksand.

I am happy with this painting too. Bob Rohm put it on the cover of his book.

Kevin MacPherson Demo #2

This is a demo that I did from page 103 Kevin MacPherson’s book Landscape Painting Inside and Out. I did it just how he said to do it. I propped the book up next to my easel, followed the instructions and copied the pictures.

I started with an untoned canvas, roughed in the outlines with thin OMS (thin like a watery watercolor). Then I blocked in the main color shapes also with super thin paint, and a really fat brush (#10). Then I painted all the shadow areas on one day, and the next day painted in the light areas. I used a #4 flat. When I was painting the dark areas, it was really depressing. Everything was dark and gray. But then when I did the light areas, it really popped! All of that gray was necessary. When it was done, and dried for a day or two, then I put in on the very lightest highlights (and touched up whatever other little colors needed attention.)

For the sky, I painted it all blue, but I didn’t know how to get the warm glow on the right. When I was painting the lights, I dry-brushed on a warm buff that I was painting the light rocks with. That gave it a warm, golden glow without turning the sky green. I did that over the entire sky, but moreso on the right.

Overall, I am happy with it. Copying the demo helped me make the painterly strokes, and see how dark, how light, how dull and how bright I needed to make things. Now if I could just do this without copying someone else's work.