The Winter Creek - a demo needing help

[Watercolour lover]

Although I class myself as an experienced painter in watercolours, I'm only just experimenting with acrylics. This is my second fully painted acrylic, and I made this into a step-by-step venture for my own benefit; I like to see how I got from A to B and so on. This little winter creek idea has been hanging around in my ideas file for years, but I've always been reluctant to try this in watercolour because of all the tedious misket application it probably involved. If you have the time and patience, would you follow my steps and tell me if this is how you would have approached this subject. At the end I'm asking for advice on how to complete the RH corner. The image size is 14" x 18" on canvas board, using Liquitex professional heavy body acrylic paints. Here is my reference photograph.



I started off by roughing in the sky and snow areas, leaving the creek area open.



Next I blocked in the creek area.



I've jumped ahead here a bit and roughed in the main trees, some of the middle-ground bushes and background stuff.



I worked on the creek area next, and tried to capture the late afternoon sunshine effect.



A close-up of my creek before the final dark shadows were in.



Another close-up as I tried to capture the snow on various trees and branches.



Now I have a problem. How do I tackle the RH corner of this project? In the next two images I used Cling Wrap to try a couple of alternatives (I ran out of soft charcoal that day!) This is the original photographic reference but I'm not sure if this works



In this image I've toned down the foreground bushes and opted for a mixture of dried grass and smaller bushes. So - what do you think? Shall I try for a tree stump covered with snow, or is that to much of a Christmas card effect? No - I'm not going to put in a deer!



Thanks.

John

www.watercoloursforfun.com

[idylbrush]

Very nicely executed. I think I rather like the alternate 2 the best. The other is a tad busy for my taste.

Nicely done.

[Thomas Greaves]

Nice work!
However, in answer to your question, I agree with Howard, too much would be TOO much.
For what my opinion is worth, I would be tempted to leave as is.
The simple expanse of snow leads the eye to the depth of the scene. Anything too prominent in the foreground might have an arresting effect.
But that is just my personal taste, (I tend to be a little claustrophoebic visually, lol)
Actually, the area which discomforts me the most is the top left corner, but again, maybe it's just me.

Thomas.

[Lady Carol]

#2, #2 definitely your version rather than the photo. It is too messy.

I like your painting better than the ref, BTW. I enjoyed watching it unfold.

[Katwyld]

Another vote for the second one... the smaller bushes give something to that space without cluttering it... Very nicely done! You've picked up acrylics quite well, I think...

As far as if this is how I would have approached it? Yeah, i think I would have, but likely a lot less neatly. hehe I have a habit of making a mess with any 'blank' areas when I paint...

[dreamz]

I think #1 is to busy also but #2 is perhaps to sparse for my own taste.

I sure can't fault any of your steps and the result is absolutly gorgeous

[Clever]

Welcome over here in acrylics, John...I have admired your work in the WC forum. I too cast my vote for the 2nd version...esp. since you have "cleaned" out the underbrush a good bit from the rest of the ref. pic.

[debee]

Very nice....I am voting for #2 also. I love the cling wrap idea!

[Watercolour lover]

OK - here's my final effort. Thanks everyone for the help and advice. I let this sit around the studio for a two days and realized the Number 2 alternative was better, and so did most of you. (Great minds think alike?) I decided to put in just a few bush indications to act as a sort of eye jogger and to relieve what I thought was a rather blank space. I also added some extra snow touches to the trees as I noticed my local trees had snow blown into the bark crevices; I didn't want them to look like icing on a cake.

Nobody mentioned the possibility of putting shadows from the trees to perhaps link this together, and I'll let this linger in the studio for a few days and get on with something else then see how I feel about that. My instinct is to leave it alone in case I get to over-paintng it. Mind you - maybe I should consider putting in a little of that sunlight in the background ripples? Naw - let's not go there.

Carol: I'm glad you liked my demo approach. I originally did that to help me remember how I got to each stage, then I thought other people might be interested and could guide me on how they would approach this project.

Katwyd: Hope you like my second version.

Thomas: Perhaps that top LH corner looks a little better now?

Dreamz: Hey - I have a cousin living in St. Augustine - practically neighbours! Hope the second approach pleases you too.

Margaret: I'm glad to be in such good company. I haven't abandoned watercolours of course, but trying out acrylics is a new challenge and a lot of fun in the learning process.

Debbie: Talk about necessity being the mother of invention...I was casting about for some clear acrylic sheets I used to have for watercolours years ago. They had a kind of "tooth" on one side and you could actually paint shadows and such to see how the effect looked, but I guess they got thrown out in various moves. Then I hit on the idea of Cling Wrap. It's cheap and seems to work OK. It certainly made the final decision easier.

I've attached a couple of close-ups as our small images make it hard to see any special techniques. If you're interested you can monitor my website at www.watercoloursforfun.com for "Acrylics Corner" and a 1000 pixel-high image, sometime next week. Thanks again everyone.





Here it is in a frame.



Now - what will I do next? Isn't that what this this all about? The next one will be it!

John

www.watercoloursforfun.com

[DakotaPaint]

Wow! It looks great!

[Lady Carol]

Unfortunately John, the next one will not be it, but possibly one somewhere after will be it though

It looks really good. I think you have a successful painting here.

[Paulafv]

Lovely, John. This one is it.

Paula