Dutch Landscape (Step by Step)

Artchrispy · #1 01-06-2011, 11:14 AM

Hi This is the 1st painting in 2011. It's from my own photo taken over my winter vacation. This is a mill in the city of Haarlem near Amsterdam. The canals were all partially frozen. It was overcast so I had to fudge the light contrast. I completely changed the sky color at the end which is why the final it differs so drastically from the early stages. Comments welcome. Thanks for looking and happy new year!
Final

Steps:

I started with a two value high contrast underpainting using just one darkish grey.

I mixed a salmon colored wash and spread it over the entire canvas. I made a mistake using white when mixing the wash, which made it too opaque and raised the value of the dark half of the underpaining, consequently screwing up the contrast. I should have used burnt sienna or something orangish.

Used a fine point sharpie to firm the foreground edges:

Reference:

Chia · #2 01-06-2011, 12:28 PM

Great artistic start to the year Chris! I like your painted version so much better than the photograph. The change in sky colour is brilliant and is reminiscent of the old Dutch Masters. Your use of soft edges in the background brings the attention to the foreground, and the piece is nicely composed. Impressive!