Minnowa Bridge at Ironwood Springs

[brianc]

http://www.wetcanvas.com/Community/images/16-Sep-2005/36225-Minnowa_Bridge,_Ironwood_Springs_web.jpg
Beautiful 1930 bridge relocated from Fertile, Iowa to Ironwood Springs near Rochester. 8x10 oil on board. Just couldn't get this finished on location, had to finish it at home. Gaahh! Man-made structures! Fought all evening to straighten the edges of the bridgework.

Comments and criticisms appreciated.

How do you all do lattice work like these bridge struts? Do you do the entire thing wet on wet??? I tried to block in the trees around the lattice, then put in the lattice, but then I had 100 edges to fix up that had holes.


- Brian

[Picqwik]

This is really nice, Brian. Your choice of colors really speaks to me. I'm not sure how to approach the problem of the lattice work, but you seem to have solved it anyway.

I went out last weekend and shot some photos of an iron bridge over the Delaware River at Frenchtown, New Jersey. It's a much bigger bridge than yours and a whole lot more lattice work to handle. I'll watch for replies to your question ...

Actualy, I had more or less, decided against trying the painting. Bit too complicated.
But after seeing your painting, I'm inspired. I'm going to give it a try.

Dave from Florida (up in New Jersey)

[brianc]

This is really nice, Brian. Your choice of colors really speaks to me. I'm not sure how to approach the problem of the lattice work, but you seem to have solved it anyway.

I went out last weekend and shot some photos of an iron bridge over the Delaware River at Frenchtown, New Jersey. It's a much bigger bridge than yours and a whole lot more lattice work to handle. I'll watch for replies to your question ...

Actualy, I had more or less, decided against trying the painting. Bit too complicated.
But after seeing your painting, I'm inspired. I'm going to give it a try.
Thanks Dave. It did take me longer than I usually take on a painting. I tend to paint slower than many of the other practiced artists, here, and average about four hours per painting. That said, my time on this painting was 2.5 hours on site, and I had everything blocked in before I had to leave. I had expected getting the lattice drawn correctly with perspective to be the biggest problem, but that turned out to be easy, I would say easier than, say, spacing windows in a building. Perhaps because each girder connected to the next one and so many of the angles were parallel. The time consuming part was snugging up the lattice edges to the background. Along with the detail on the trees on that took about three more hours. Maybe that will be helpful in your planning ?

[mnpainter]

Brian, Love those reds and the greens but one thing I can see is the edges of the trees just abve the bridge dont really seem organic(?) I would like to see more of a staggered look and hard to soft transition edges, but thats me:>) I really love the comp., the color and paint quality!!! cool!! Leave the lattice work it seems fresh and very effective!!! Do it the same way next time.

Ben

[brianc]

.. the edges of the trees just abve the bridge dont really seem organic(?) I would like to see more of a staggered look and hard to soft transition edges, but thats me:>) I really love the comp., the color and paint quality!!! cool!! Ben, thanks. I assume you're talking about the yellow green line that runs in a wave and nearly touches the bridge. It is the entire line? or just the middle where it dips. I can see that maybe needs some softening there, maybe more like the the higher wave on the left. Or maybe that still has a little too much edge?

[brianc]

http://www.wetcanvas.com/Community/images/17-Sep-2005/36225-Minnowa_Bridge_at_Ironwood_Springs_2_web.jpg
More organic trees. :D

[Cristy A]

Boy, Brian...
I really like this one.
That glowing red on the far side railings and struts and the near I beam just gleams - warm light on the high foliage, cool but still luminous shadows under. Mmmmmm...
Really nice.
I feel your pain with the thin and uniform elements - you look like you have it handled, but I've struggled with this kind of thing too.
The drilling rigs and such I sometimes do have a lot of this type of thing - I've sometimes had luck slicing them in with a knife, but I'm as apt to get them wrong as right, and like your bridge here, they really need to be accurate in width, location and angle or they read totally wrong. I've also been able to use a super teeny brush and almost 'insize" them in, scraping as much as painting. In the end, I try to get just enough of the the right info for my own memory, not screw too much up, and use the rigger in the studio when things are dry. (cheating? maybe so.)
Lovely painting.
Cristy

[brianc]

Thanks Cristy. I'd thought about dry painting, later. Aside from any cheating questions :) how do the edges look? are they too sharp? Here, I tried a turp line/value drawing in rusty red, which warms up a normal block on other paintings. But with the rusty metal, it made it look uneven because it was too close in color to the final color. I'd thought that perhaps next trying 1) a pencil outline 2) a thinner undercoat block for most of the foliage, and then 3) a thicker lattice work 4) adjustments and highlights to the foiliage and 5) touch up. Marc Hanson's nearly perfect panels seem to soak up a lot of underlayer, and in might allow an almost complete block in.

- Brian

[Cristy A]

Dry painting later -
Honestly, they look, well, dry painted on later. Also, if there is much texture or brush work in whatever I'm trying to paint on, it's really tough to get an even line. Sometimes I've sort of blotted and softened them with a dry brush to get them to look like they belong, and one of the gurus here mentioned "oiling out" the surface with liquin to help the new paint blend in with the old. That made a lot of difference. I'll bet Lee is a good resource here. Maybe I'll go look at his threads and see what I can learn - you've got me really thinking, now!!
Cristy

[mnpainter]

Brian, To me that made this painting lots better, VERY EFFECTIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ben

[tjhi]

Hi, Brian,

You have done a very good painting here. Love the use of color and the fretwork of the bridge. Also, love those spaces in the understructure of the bridge where the green peeks through.

Terry

[cherylleclairsommer]

Brian, This painting is fabulous. The orange reds of the bridge really make the greens sing. Hope to see you again sometime soon - I was at M. Hanson's workshop (the pastel painter). Hope to see more of your work on wc. Cheryl:music:

[cherylleclairsommer]

Brian, This is my second reply - I'm not sure if the original reply posted. Forgive me if both are posted. The orange reds of the bridge really make the greens sing. I was a pastel painter with you at the M. Hanson workshop in Lanesboro. Very helpful workshop. Cheryl:cool:

[brianc]

Ben, thanks for all the exclamation points :)

Terry, thanks. I decided today after seeing some other bridges elsewhere that this was a classy bridge. The holes under the bridge were interestingly not the same shape.

Cheryl, so glad you made it onto WC. Hope to see some pastels here from you, any day :)