Rush Creek2, Novato

11x14 oil on board. I painted this in studio while it is still fresh in my memory. The mountain is Mt. Burdell.

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Comment by Stuart J. Gourlay on July 25, 2014 at 17:46: Thanks Laura. There is always more to learn. Stu

Comment by Laura Xu on July 25, 2014 at 16:48: Stu, I will just try to fix the parts Michael listed here that is pretty clear. Be sure I will go there paint this area again I love this place with a lot paintable spot.

I am amazed by your plein air painting. It is very good one. Of course I know the place, Bullhead Flat, is one of my favourite places to paint. I envy you have so many beautiful place around you can paint.

Comment by Stuart J. Gourlay on July 25, 2014 at 16:11: Laura, good to leave this stuff for the next painting. Initial design is very hard. I find it easiest to do with value studies when painting plein air. But you have to put things in and leave things out to make the picture work. I find that the viewfinder of my camera is very good for this and I am getting better and better at using value viewer in my iPad and iPhone to get my composition and value structure right. When I block my values in early and keep them warm, my paintings come out much better. Here's my painting from today with my reference photo, then my block in and last the final painting on easel. You will recognize the place, It's Point Weber as seen from Bullhead Flat, but the tide is in. The focal area is in my middle distance. What I think makes my foreground work is the "S" pattern of the reeds and water in the cove. There are plenty of diagonals and some short verticals near the focal zone. The bands of light and dark water give interest in the large amount of water. My sky is prismatic with very subtle color variations because there were no clouds and there is a fair amount of sky. This is 9" by 12" and toook a total of 2 hours and 4 minutes from the initial photo until the on easel photo of the finished painting.

Comment by Laura Xu on July 25, 2014 at 14:50: Thank you Michael! I will leave it for the next one.

Comment by Michael J. Severin on July 25, 2014 at 13:16: No, I mean the horizon ....across the estuary. No, you cannot do such a drastic change ...just concentrate on the fixes I gave you for this painting.

Comment by Laura Xu on July 25, 2014 at 13:04: May be I should start a new one rather than the fix.

Comment by Laura Xu on July 25, 2014 at 13:03: Wow... Michael, Thank you very very much!!! I read this very carefully, repeatedly making sure I can understand single part of your input.

For the composition, do you mean make foreground( grass) higher up to 1/3 of canvas so make foreground larger space? I may not change compostion for this one as I am afraid to destroy it.

I will try to fix on mountains'; Play around middle ground making interesting pattens for the reflection, clouds ...; For the foreground I will try to make an angle and going into the painting.

I will send update later.

Comment by Michael J. Severin on July 25, 2014 at 11:50: Okay, thanks for the photo Laura. Looking at the hillside, it is a middle value dark . but lighter then any darks you would have in the foreground. The hillside becomes cooler and lighter as it rises away from us ..do you see that? What happened to your painting was that you started off too dark (the hillside) and then everything else was off because of that. When you are comparing middle values, always compare it to your darkest dark ..if you compare it against a light, you will always make it too dark ..because of simultaneous contrast ..it will fool your eyes. Okay, also I see a hint of the hillside reflecting into the estuary ..play that up a little in your painting. Compositional wise, i would have brought the horizon down to the 1/3 line, gave the foreground a better shape ..INTO THE PAINTING ... and played with the sand bar ..giving it an interesting abstract shape leading us into the painting ...across to the hillside and then up the bare grass of the hillside to connect with some interesting cloud patterns taking us to the left. Okay, so how do you fix this one? ...first of all, repaint that hillside much lighter ...cooler and lighter as it goes away from us. Follow the light patterns in the photo ..they are actually pretty good. The average color of the hillside is a bluish/green ...there will be violet in there also. A little warmer at the bottom and cooler and lighter as you go up the hillside. For the light patterns, try a reddish/orange + white and gray it with your blue/green color ..be sure to paint some atmosphere color into the whole thing. I would like to see that second hillside pushed back further ..use a blue/violet + white ..the light patches would be the same as the first hillside, but with more atmosphere color added to it. Once you get that hillside the proper value, you might have to fudge with the water? ...I will leave that up to your good judgement. The last thing you do is to rework your foreground so that it is at an angle and going into the painting. I wish I could show you ..but I would recommend you put a spit of land off to the right and connect it to the foreground shape ..so that we come across the foreground and AROUND your spit of land that is pointing to the focal point ..the light sand ..anyway, just my suggestions ...something to think about.

Comment by Laura Xu on July 25, 2014 at 11:15: Hi Michael, thank you so much for your such detailed comments on this painting! I really appreciate your time. I do understand what you addressed all the issues here. Aactually I expected you will say that as some of these issues I realized myself like the hill. But the reason I didn't fix it because it is not very far away and also it is in shadow side which is quite dark. I guess, I am wrong with that. Every single step back the value should be changed that is the rule. I will fix it! The middle ground, I was struggled a lot. I may work on a new one there is better composition. But I am looking forward your help Michael. Thank you very much as always!

Comment by Michael J. Severin on July 25, 2014 at 10:26: Hi Laura, I agree with Ann and Stu. Try to avoid something in the foreground running parallel to the picture frame. When you come across a hillside with a lot of patterns ....like the one you have here ....try to simplify these patterns into an interesting shape. The hillside actually should be more of a middle tone ..looks much to dark here. Also, the light shapes fracture the whole thing. When painting something like this hillside, block in the AVERAGE COLOR AND AVERAGE VALUE first ...then put in any variances you see ..BUT ..they must relate in value to your existing value ..you can make a temperature and hue change, but keep the value close to your original block in ...I hope you understood that? ..Something like you did on the far hillside ..your values there are the same, but you have warm and cool patterns ..and that is good!! I would need to see the photo of this spot before I can assess your middle ground ...right now, your middle ground stands up like a wall ..and I would need to see the place or a photo to give you any advice on how to fix it. The paintings lacks depth because you are missing ALL of the clues that give us depth ...linear and atmospheric perspective, size relationships, gradation, and overlapping ..if you don't have those "clues", then you do not have depth.