Woodbridge UK - WIP

Purleyfineart · #1 03-16-2008, 04:00 PM

Here's a view that I'm going to publish as a WIP, assuming that WC disk space problems allow multiple images ...

That is the river Deben at Woodbridge, Suffolk, England. The white building with the red roof is a famous tidemill. See
http://woodbridgesuffolk.info/Woodbr...t/TideMill.htm

This is an oft-painted scene, having been done by many famous artists including John Yardley (several times I think) and Edward Seago
http://www.portlandgallery.com/pages...ive/13098.html
http://johnyardley.com/

Older images show the buildings to the left of the mill as dark coloured warehouses. They were converted into expensive flats about ten years ago.

Most paintings emphasise the tidemill, mine will include more of the river and the boats. I want it to be inspired by the work of David Curtis,
http://www.djcurtis.co.uk/DAVIDC~1/david_curtisx.html
a favourite artist of mine. However, my photograph presents a number of challenges to the painter:

- it is an overcast day with dull light, for instance the jetty has no cast shodow. I intend to paint it that way rather than risk trying to transform it into a sunny day. However I will have to brighten up the colours a bit.
- the mudflats have the same tonal value as the water, and almost the same colour, as they reflect the sky so much. I will have to emphasise the mud colour and darken the value.
- the composition needs some adjustment, for example, I want to avoid the mast and rigging going through the Mill. There is also no clear structure in the photo, which is rather busy. This quick value sketch shows the changes I want to make:

Firstly I have moved the viewpoint slightly, so that the Mill is to the right of the mast. This has allowed me to create what is basically a triangular composition, with the three apexes being the jetty and main boat, marked 1, the white tidemill, marked 2, and the boats in the Deben, marked 3. The viewer's eye should follow these in order, and then return to point 1. At least, that's my plan, the value sketch is very rough, in the painting these key items will stand out more.

It's a bit of a bee in my bonnet that most 'how to' books on watercolour describe the drawing stage very briefly. I'm using a half-imperial sheet for this painting and I followed my usual technique of doing a full-scale drawing on cartridge paper, and making sure that I am happy with everything before transferring to the watercolour paper. In this case I even did individual cut-outs for the boats in the river, and moved them around on the drawing until I was happy with their positions. I then used graphite transfer paper to copy the key points of the cartridge paper drawing, and then completed the details directly on the watercolour paper, in this case Saunders-Waterford 200lb rough, a paper that I have never used before.

The next stage was to mask out all objects that are lighter than their background. I know that many artists don't use masking fluid, but it's a key feature of David Curtis's work. I used Pebeo masking gum, again this is a first for me, but it was recommended on WC. In showing the result, I have selected only part of the painting, as otherwise the pencil lines are hard to see:

More to come tomorrow!

**Yorky** · #2 03-17-2008, 07:24 AM

Looking forward to seeing this develop Andrew.

Doug

Purleyfineart · #3 03-17-2008, 09:51 AM

Thanks Yorky. I confess to some trepidation but I am in fact several stages beyond what I have shown so far, and I think it's working reasonably well ... fingers crossed.

Here's the whole painting after the background wash has been done. In line with David Curtis's approach, I have washed colour over the entire paper, using a grey-blue for the sky and the water, and a mix of that plus a reddish-brown on the mudflats. I'm using a mixture of Winsor & Newton and Wilcox/DaVinci paints.

It's immediately obvious that there is a problem with the mudflats as I anticipated, in that the value is too light. Of course, it's hard to judge the value balance at such an early stage and I find that it is easy to end up using values that are too light for everything. Then at a later stage one adds a real dark and the imbalance becomes obvious, requiring re-working of the entire painting. For this reason I like to add a strong dark fairly early in the painting sequence, but not just yet.

So here's the next stage, done after the initial wash had dried.

I have strengthened the colour of the mud, while still trying to keep some of the paler areas to suggest the reflection of the sky on the wet surface. I have added the distant trees in a blue-green, with the greener grass area below them, leaving some indistinct shapes for the hulls of the boats on the grass. Where the grass bank is undercut at the edge of the mud, there is a darker strip. Incidentally, I masked out the two masts that pass over the trees, although these have already been painted over by the initial wash. The rest of the masking is still on except for the top of the mast of the boat at the jetty, which I rubbed off as an experiment. The Pebeo gum comes off this paper cleanly.

I have started on the jetty with a lightish grey underwash for the deck planking. Next I'll do the supporting piers which form the darkest object in the painting ....

Srishti · #4 03-17-2008, 11:56 AM

Looking good!

Cheri Lee · #5 03-17-2008, 12:42 PM

Thanks for doing this WIP...it is so helpful to me to see how other artists work and to read their comments as well. I love watching the progression! Your painting is coming along nicely!

Cheri Lee

RTi · #6 03-17-2008, 01:42 PM

I appreciate the effort you are putting into this as WIP. Thank you. Now this becomes my favorite point in the painting process, after the planning is over and the first bold strokes, then really putting on the paint.

Purleyfineart · #7 03-22-2008, 12:43 PM

I think at least one response has been lost during the database restore. I also did try to post an update which just sat forever ... so here it is again ...

I have now added the pier and removed the masking fluid:

The addition of the strong darks changes the tonal balance, and it will change even more dramatically as the boats are added. I'm wondering if there are enough mid-tones to unify the painting, but reflections that I need to add on the water and on the mudflats will help.

I'm now going to tackle the buildings in the background, and also the smaller boats. I'm going to leave the main boats until last, I'm not sure why, other artists might tackle the main subjects first.

I don't think WC's width limitation of 500 pixels does the painting justice, so I'll try to save a large image on another host and provide a link.

Cheers
Andrew

**Yorky** · #8 03-22-2008, 12:46 PM

Yes Andrew, unfortunately some posts made during the dificulties seem to have ben lost.

I look forward to seeing this develop.

Doug

HarvestMoon · #9 03-22-2008, 01:35 PM

beautiful job so far.... should be super!

Purleyfineart · #10 03-23-2008, 04:37 PM

Right, now we start to make real progress. One thing I have learned during this, my first WIP, is that it is difficult to know when to show an update. Also, it's hard to know what the viewers want to learn. So, please ask questions if you want to know how I did something....

The next image is a big step forward. I have added the boatyards to the left of the tidemill, the mill and other buldings, and most of the smaller boats. I have also realised that I should NOT have removed all the masking fluid - it was still needed on the larger boats, where it protects the whitish areas that are in front of darker parts. Oh well, I'll just put it back ... see later for how.

Also paints - I'm actually using quite a limited palette. I almost never use colours straight from the tube - everything is mixed from what is essentially a secondary palette (but I'm not fully on those exact pigments yet) plus raw and burnt sienna. This painting seems to use a lot of blues - either cerulean partially neutralised with cadmium red, or ultramarine partially neutralised with burnt sienna. The blacks and greys are ultramarine fully neutralised with burnt sienna. I never use tube blacks or greys - you don't know what's in them, and they are 'dead' - mix your own and you can leave it as a coloured grey, or merge it into one of the constituent colours.

Here's the image in WC size

and here's a link to a larger version - click on it to see it

There are a number of things I know are not right .. but I'm not going to go back until after I have done the missing bits. Now I'm going to tackle the boats in the river - the boat under the pier will be last.

Please ask any questions you have!!!

Andrew

**Yorky** · #11 03-23-2008, 04:49 PM

Coming along fine Andrew. Ipresume you will be adding a reflection from the boat behind the dock - it appears to be on top of the dock at the moment.

LOL re masking fluid.

Doug

Purleyfineart · #12 03-24-2008, 06:35 AM

Actually Doug, it already has a reflection. If you look in the photo you'll see that the boats that are farther away have less obvious reflections - I think this is to do with the water surface not being a perfect mirror. I'll post a link to a BIG image this time so you can see, and I'll revisit the area when I'm reviewing the whole painting at the end.

Now I have added the boats in the river. I think the brown boat is particularly effective somehow - just luck. I'll put the WC-size image below, plus a link to a full-size photo 1.5 MBytes - click on the small thumbnail to download/view it, although the photo is not as sharp as I'd like. These links to exterior hosted images will stop working at some point in the future.

Now as I promised I'm putting masking fluid back on the main boat. I found that the Pebeo gum clogged up my masking brush, it did not seem to clean off like W&N fluid did. So, I'm using a plastic applicator that I happened to have. I remove it by rubbing with a putty eraser. I'm taking the opportunity to mask off more areas than I did originally, eg various ropes that pass in front of darker wood etc.

We are approaching the end now - just the main boat, the rigging of the boats, and then final adjustments.

Andrew

**Yorky** · #13 03-24-2008, 07:45 AM

Sorry Andrew, it looks to be parked on top of the dock. Perhaps if you add the reflection of the mast under the dock it will help avoid this effect.

Excellent work BTW.

Doug

Scene Chaser · #14 03-24-2008, 09:23 AM

Andrew, very nice scene and nicely painted.
Bill

Purleyfineart · #15 03-30-2008, 04:42 PM

Here's the main boat done. It took me about 4 sessions, two of two hours each, and then two shorter ones for details and corrections. The hull was painted in five washes: the first in light green (I used cerulean blue plus hansa yellow) over the whole hull, then a second wash of the same colour on top, except for the strip along the side. both these washes went right down to the water/mud. Then I overpainted the bottom of the hull with the dark blue stripe, again going right to the water, and then I overpainted most of that with the black (ultramarine plus burnt sienna). This overpainting technique avoids the problems of having to butt two colours up to each other, although I had to do that on the deck anyway. After doing all that, I decided that the green was still too light, and added a fifth wash over everything except the light stripe. Then the shadow under the hull strip was added. The mast was done in two washes, with the rope hanging in front of it being masked out for the dark brown wash, then painted in grey later. The decking and cabin were straightforward, the windows being overpainted on the brown. I added most of the other details, and that was the main work done. In the first detail session I added the rigging, using a size 0/2 rigger and a ruler. In the second detail session I added the wooden support for the boom, as I had realised when adding the rigging that there is no stay holding it up. I had to 'lift' a strip from the pier column, using a quarter-inch flat brush and water. I then painted the wood of the support, and then repainted the pier column to sharpen the edges.

I also made a number of other minor changes during the detail sessions, including some changes to help Doug with his confusion about the boat sitting on the pier. Here's the final painting, again with a thumbnail link to a larger image:

I have tried to describe many of the key decisions and techniques used during the painting. However there is inevitably a mass of detail that I could not include. There were also the usual problems and corrections. Overall I think it looks good, better than the images convey. My next painting will be something completely different.
Andrew

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