This post continues a demo I started last week. To start from the beginning, click here!
Before going too much further I like to get a good feel for my area of interest, so I lay in the general colors and highlights of the wall of the Abbey ruins. I’ve worked wet into wet to blend the purple shadow colors with the warm local colors of the Abbey wall, which gives me a nice mixture of golds, browns and muted violets.
At this point I am ready to dig in to the rest of the landscape and get that canvas covered. To keep the flow going, I try not to be “stingy with my paint“. For this painting I’m using a somewhat more expanded palette than I do when I paint on location.Â
I want to have large enough puddles of the colors I see so that I don’t have stop every five seconds to mix up more paint. This process is pretty organic so it’s difficult to give a step by step process of mixing colors. In addition to blending paint wet-into-wet on the canvas, I also tend to dip into various larger puddles to make new blends as I go along. The most important thing during this process is just to compare one color, one value to the others, constantly asking myself, “Darker or lighter? Warmer or Cooler?”
I also decide to indicate the basic iris colors so that I know where I’m at. I have to be careful here–even the middle value of the purple/blue flowers has a lot of white in it, so  I really don’t want to paint these too thickly or it will be hard to control the darks, making them muddy and less pure. A lot of these preliminary iris lay-ins will need to be restated, and, of course defined, but I felt like I wanted some indication of them in there at this point so I wouldn’t get lost (if that makes any sense!)
Here you can see that I’ve continued on working my way down the canvas so that eventually everything is pretty well laid in. I’ve held off putting down much of my strongest highlights. That will be among my next steps, along with further refining, defining, tweaking, and adjusting.  Â
Up to this point I have used just a few brushes. Aside from the one round I used for the linear drawing of my composition in the earliest stages, I’ve used my larger flats and filberts. Being the very messy painter that I am, I can’t tell you the size numbers of any of these, as there is old smeared paint on all of my handles, completely obscuring any info that once was printed on them! I think probably the smallest in use is around an 8 or 10(flat) but the ones I used the most were the largest filberts I have, with widths ranging from 1 and 1/4″ to 1 and 3/4″. I love these large filberts, as you get a nice thin edge at the tip and a broad flat side too, making them very versatile for my purposes. I could even stand to go to a larger size brush for this size painting, but I need to conserve my expenses so I’m trying to use what I have on hand right now.  Even so, if I use the broad side of the brushes I can get a pretty broad and loose stroke and avoid getting too fussy with too many details too early!
To be continued…
Jennifer
Young; Vibrant LandscapesOil Paintings and Art Prints Online
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~I am so enjoying this demo~
~I haven’t been a very good blogger lately~
~I’v been painting allot of sets lately~
~Last week was for the VCU Opera~
~next Christian Youth Theatre~
~then Stage 1~
but~ I have 1 week of rest~
~amy~
When you deliver, YOU DELIVER!!!!! THis is great, I’ve had but a moment to view the photos, later I’ll study the rest. Can’t wait! Wonderful demo and painting!!! Thanks!!!!!!!!
Was that really Rick that commented on last post? Must be an impostor!
Way too serious….lol
Amy- Thanks for your feedback. As to the blogging, you and me both! I actually have loads of backlogged blog ideas but as the weather warms there are so many distractions it can make it hard to find the time. Well, as long as we’re painting….That’s the most important thing, right?
Marilyn- So am I somewhat redeemed? Hehe. I might do a better job with follow-up if I weren’t so long-winded, eh? Oh well, it’s an inherited trait, so I don’t fight it. I just blame my ancestry.
I’m back and enjoyed your “long winded” commentary on the steps and your thought processes of your work in progress. I always gain insight into how to do things through your “lessons” and I wish I live close enough to attend one of your workshops. I wonder if I’ll every use brushes that large for something other than background painting? Slow steps……
Great movement in this composition -that zig zag thing with the stone wall. I wondered if you added some wall to make that happen or if you saw it in the scene and composed your photo to create that view. Nicely done either way. Also, do you always paint in the first stage ( red under painting or drawing ) and let it dry, to later come back and paint wet into wet over the dry “map” created by the first oil sketch?
I’m going to add to Rick’s acknowledgment of your contribution to us bloggers out here. If you remember, yours was the very FIRST blog I ever visited! You where my introduction into this wonderful blogosphere back in 2007. It’s been a great adventure and education – So THANKS!!!!!
Hi Jennifer – Haven’t visited in a bit. Glad your mom is doing well.
I am enjoying following this painting. I like it already. Can’t wait to see the final work. I’ve not been able to paint in a while and am looking forward to getting back out in the wild blue yonder with my paints.
I’ll check back on your progress – looks like I need to backtrack some too!
Marilyn- Thanks so much for your wonderful message (blushing again). I am glad you enjoy the lessons. I do enjoy teaching and hope to get back into it if I can find the right opportunity. The thing I don’t enjoy is administrative and logistical side of workshop planning, so I’m on the lookout for people/places that can handle those aspects. ‘Til then I have the blog to keep in practice.
As to the composition question, the wall was there but not very noticeable underneath the herbs. But I liked the zig zag so I’ve played it up a bit more. Regarding the underpainting- I don’t find that I have to let it dry, but that can certainly be done too. The underpainting is very thin, and the other layers are much thicker, so there really isn’t any problem lifting up the red color (especially with the trans. red oxide, which isn’t a highly staining color like alizarin). I find it helps me to organize things in my brain if I have a sort of “value map” before I get into color, which is why I do it. The reddish color is also nice because I like the way it looks if I let it show through here and there. Gives a nice warm vibration and interest to the painting, I think. But I can’t say I do it all the time. Sometimes I do just a quick line sketch with the transparent red oxide and get right into painting, using color from the start to block in. This is especially true in plein air, when I don’t have a lot of time.
Vickie- Thanks very much for your thoughts, and thanks for following the demo and blog. I’ll post final stages as soon as I can figure out why I suddenly can’t FTP anything! Frustrating but I’m sure I’ll figure it out. Hope you can get out there and paint soon!
Love your paintings!
Susan
Over at “RaisinToast“