Plant Fountain WIP

[flippedlid]

Hi, I thought I'd post the progress of this latest painting.

It's a view of a fountain at the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens in Sarasota, FL.

I worked from my own reference photo.

It's a quarter sheet Arches 140lb. cold press. Colors are all W&N Artist: New Gamboge, Winsor Lemon, Naples Yellow, Raw Sienna, Burnt Sienna, Winsor Blue (green shade), Fr. Ultramarine, Cobalt Blue, Winsor Red, Permanent Alizarin Crimson, Permanent Rose...I think that's all I used.

I started with a quick pencil sketch direct to the paper. Then sprayed some clear water around the sky area and smoothed it out with a 2" hake brush.

Then I laid in some Winsor Blue and Cobalt Blue into the sky. Letting them mix on the paper. The light is coming from the right and is pretty intense, so I left the sky very light toward that side and toward the horizon.

I also, while the sky was still wet, started roughing in the background trees and foliage with mixes of Winsor Lemon with Winsor Blue and a touch of Ultramarine and some NG here and there too. Mixed up a violet for the distant trees.



Next stage was to start defining the palm tree and all the other foliage. Pretty much just used all my yellows and blues. Working wet in wet and wet on dry, just depends on what I was trying to get, as far as edges and such.

I also started the foliage in the fountain with just the addition of AC and PR.

The greenhouse was also put in the background too.



Here, I thought I'd show you my work area. It's a 10ft.x 10ft. room with an east facing window. Not the best for in the morning, but, I make do.



OK, moving on. Here I've just been modeling the foliage and trying to create depth. Trying to leave spaces through to the sky. I started a warm cast shadow on the path, but got it too light in the first go.



So, I try it again after all had dried. The benches are a little tricky in trying to get the background, while leaving the slats. Just continuing to darken up values and it's starting to look like something now.



OK, here is where I am as of right now. I feel it is pretty close. Here, I have developed the shadows and contours on the fountain. I don't think I'm ready to call it done just yet. Also, you'll note the change in lighting, now that is is after sunset. I have a mixture of florescent, LED, and incandescent. Still not happy with all that. I'll get some OttLite's one of these days



Thanks for reading this far. If you have any questions or critiques, I'm glad to hear them.

Peace,
Todd

[Yorky]

Looking good Todd.

I have a few concerns about the scale of the seats, they look small compared to the foreground urn. There seems to be extreme perspective here, maybe it's a result of the wide angle lens used in the photo.

Doug

[pjartwc]

A very difficult subject with a lot going on. Good job, but I do agree with Doug on the seats.

[flippedlid]

Thanks, Doug

Thanks, Jan

Maybe the proportion is appearing off because I used the same camera to take both the reference photo and to photograph the artwork....

Seriously, though, I'm fine with the bench in the middle ground. I intentionally wanted it placed farther away. It's the one to the right and closest that I feel I didn't quite make look right. I may just place it more in shadow to play it down. I'll post the reference...probably should have done that anyway.

[MtLookout]

The bench on the right is close to the correct size, however, one sees too much of the seat, which gives the impression of looking down onto it more than is the case for the particular eye level of the viewer. It seems kind of close to the viewer.

The bench on the left is painted farther away, which is ok and totally up to you. The difficulty in this instance is that there aren't enough visual clues to establish the depth of field. Changing texture or detail in the foreground helps create the depth, which in turn gives a more natural placement of that bench.

Nice painting going on here.

Tom

[flippedlid]

Thanks, Tom

OK, here is what I've come up with. I may have been trying to be too clever and poor in execution of my foreshortening. The fountain is rather large and I was trying to play that up.

The positioning and angle of the bench to the right was an attempt to push that and to stop the eye and direct it back into the painting. Same with the size and location of the other bench. I didn't like the way things were positioned in the photo. Being chopped off and crowded. At least that is what it seemed to me.

Thanks for all your input,
Todd

[Yorky]

I think that does the trick Todd

Doug

[flippedlid]

Thanks again, Doug. I may be happy with it myself finally.

[painterbear]

Todd,
Interesting WIP and explanation of your process. Thanks for doing that.

I think your revised painting works really well now. It was a little confusing before you made the changes.

Your painting turned out great!

Sylvia