Notans, Pastel value study, Colored pencil thumbnail

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Comment by Jane Albin on December 18, 2011 at 12:22

It's Saturday evening and I still haven't touched this.  I did take a picture of the start, which I will post tomorrow.

Thanks Richard re the liquin tip, will do! 

Comment by Stuart J. Gourlay on December 16, 2011 at 15:54

Jane, finish it up.  That will be your weekend stress relie.  Hope you feel better by then.  Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.  Stu

Comment by Richard Robinson on December 16, 2011 at 11:34

If a piece has gone dry I give it a rub over with some liquin before I start to help the paint flow.

Comment by Jane Albin on December 16, 2011 at 9:55

I have been under the weather and gotten no painting done for two weeks.  I hope to get back this weekend and finish my Pah Beach.  Maybe I should post the unfinished piece.  It is completely dry. :)

Comment by Jane Albin on December 16, 2011 at 9:51

Thanks Richard and Stu,

I think the "bigger piles of paint" method should help.  I am trying harder to plan the brush strikes also.  I find I am better at this when I do a more detailed sketch.  Can you recommend a better sketching method?  I have tried charcoal and pastel pencils, but they dirty the paint for me.  I like using thinned down oil paint but I am not as accurate with the drawing using wet paint. (Maybe practice will help) I have only been using oils for two and a half years and they are really a challenge.

Stu, I did get a small bottle of Galkyd but I don't like the smell.  So I got a bottle of Liquin and like it so far.

Jane

Comment by Richard Robinson on December 14, 2011 at 18:07

:-) Nice work Jane. If you're trying to paint with thicker paint you really need to FORCE yourself to lay out more paint, mix bigger piles of it and get it on more thickly. Very hard to change old habits. Mind you, if it's just a painterly look you're after it doesn't necessarily mean thicker paint - just better planning of brushstrokes so you're not fiddling too much. 

Comment by Stuart J. Gourlay on December 1, 2011 at 16:52

Jane, me too on the thin painting.  I've just been playing around with the notan and 4 value study, but I'm kind of looking at the water as the only thing that would be moving without a strong wind.  So I think I'm going to do a 14 by 11 portrait with the water as my focal zone and I will also lighten the distant hills and darken the foreground darks.   I expect most of my chroma to be in the water.   I'm going to do a B&W and a color value study first though and see how it all comes together.  A tip on painting thicker is get one of the gel media and use this instead of linseed oil or alkyd medium.  The paint companies call it by various names like impasto gel, resin gel, etc. and it comes in 150 ml tubes.  I use the Gamblin Galkyd gel medium.  It thickens your paint, accelerates drying and retains brush strokes.  You want to not overdo it but use it paticularly in foregrounds to provide texture.  Stu

Comment by Jane Albin on December 1, 2011 at 16:47

Stu, I am looking forward to seeing your townscapes.
I am going to work on a second picture for this challenge. ( combining the first and third images). I'll post notans and value studies for it soon. I will also post my first layout ASAP.
Happy painting!

Comment by Jane Albin on December 1, 2011 at 16:41

Stu, I started this as a 12x12" study today. I used a much lighter background hill; you can't see the tree because the value is too similar. I lightened the background hill and stepped up the darks in the tree. It's getting there. I'm also trying very hard to paint ' painterly' and show some real brushwork. This is hard because I am prone to paint very thin.

Comment by Stuart J. Gourlay on December 1, 2011 at 4:08

Jane, I was interested in your thumbnail posts and the new pictures.  I had worked similarly with photoshop elements on that original Pah beach photo and had come up with a similar concept of yours.  I too liked the serpentine shadow; but when I read over Richard's ideas for movement in the painting and looked at all the pictures that he sent us, I came to the conclusion that this should really be a portrait of the water, because nothing else is moving or shimmering.  I had also seen the posted blog by Jim Moyer with color swatches for the water.  So I am going to try the Pah Beach 3 reference (the photo with the most water) and see if I can get that water to shimmer.  One of my problems in painting is simplification and elemination of unimportant detail.  So for me, although I really like panoramic views, selection of that reference would play right into a weakness, my passion for detail.  Interesting, huh?  I'm almost done with 2 of my townscapes and will post them soon--neither is simple or short on detail.   Open up a can of Gamsol in the art store and smell; I sure can't smell it.  Stu