Plein aire artist, Emerald Lake, 080415

9x12. it was overcast day. It looks very flat. It needs a lot of work to survive it.

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Comment by Dorian Aronson on August 6, 2015 at 16:24: This is so fascinating that I am trying to save this page in bookmarks so I do not lose it! Thanks and smiles :-)

Comment by Laura Xu on August 6, 2015 at 13:28: Hi Sivlana, you are so sweet. Thank you so much for your encouragement!

Comment by Silvana M Albano on August 6, 2015 at 13:17: It's not easy Laura!!! Hats off for trying so many different things!!

Comment by Laura Xu on August 6, 2015 at 11:09: Thank you Charles very much! You are right and I agree with you. It is great to think about more how to paint this kind of scene in plain aire. There are so much to learn always!

Comment by Charles Post on August 6, 2015 at 10:53: Indeed the scene is tough because of the lighting. If you convert your photo to black and white, the background and shadowed areas are dark in the 1-3 value range and the lightest values (the shirt and the dock surface) are in the 6/7 range. Your painting has lighten the darks (implying a brighter light source) which means the shadows would be darker. For example, the shadows around and to the left of the shed are darker in the photo but lighter in your painting. Might help to execute some notans using 3 or 5 values to see what works best.

Comment by Laura Xu on August 6, 2015 at 10:48: Pushed background back little bit to make figure pops up. Played around little water too. I don't think it made any difference, but I give up.

Comment by Laura Xu on August 6, 2015 at 9:11: Hi Charles, I just attached the photo I took yesterday on the comment. As you can see it all is dark and the value is very close in cloudy day. And the scene is not very inspire me to paint (for me only maybe). I wasn't sure what I want to paint when I stood there, then I saw the artist stand on the deck so I just decided to paint the deck and the artist. During my painting time my mind switch back and forth should I add some colors, add some contrast or paint as what we see. Struggled all the time. Good artist should able to paint at any weather condition. I am not yet. Sometimes I can paint on cloudy day, but not this one. I can play around this for study purpose, but I don't think I can make this works. Thank you very very much for your comment and suggestion!

Comment by Charles Post on August 6, 2015 at 8:04: Compare/contrast this painting to your Encinal Boat Ramp painting. Encinal pops because it has a focal point, wide range of values -- lights to darks -- and a flow around the water. While this painting has a variety of colors, all in a tight range of mid-tones which causes every area from the gray sky (upper right) to the foreground water to appear flat. Where was the light source and wasn't it creating cast shadows and shadow shapes that are missing? If you can, convert your photo of the painting to black and white then see which area need to be lightened and which should be darker to bring the attention to the painter.