Riverbank Cottage

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Comment by Lawrence Easton on October 25, 2016 at 13:00

Hi Jeri, it was quite a while ago (a lot of water has passed under the bridge since then, as it were) so I can't remember exactly. But I only bought my first Viridian quite recently so I definitely didn't use any of that (and still have hardly ever used). In fact, apart from Terre Vert, (and Pthalo - which I virtually never use!) the only green I possessed was Oxide of Chromium, and I'm sure I didn't use that.

I like Impressionism but the Impressionists have done us all a great disservice by making us think we should never use black.

Black, used carefully, is ideal for darkening and lowering chroma. And Black mixed with Yellows can give some of the nicest greens you can get.

The water is quite extensively glazed and was built up over time. You can't really get the right effect of dark, mysterious depths of colour any other way. Probably first would have been Raw Umber, certainly there would have then been Terre Vert, also Black mixed with probably a little Cadmium Yellow. Then possibly another glazing of Black. Shadows were deepened with Ultramarine.

There may have been further glazings of some of those colours but the final step (my secret weapon for adding glow to dark water) was a glazing or two of Indian Yellow.

Hope that helps.

Comment by Jeri McDonald on October 23, 2016 at 7:21

I love the greens. The dark greens for the farthest water is perfect. We have a lot of greenish rivers here in the central valley of California and I can never quite find the right greens. I usually use viridian mixed with either burnt sienna or for my cools with dioxine purple but if I use the two combinations together on one painting it doesn't look harmonized. How can I push back my chroma and keep that harmony? I love how you did this here.

Comment by Jon Main on October 13, 2015 at 5:35

Interesting - I see what you mean about having a foreground

- maybe part of the problem is that, compositionally, everything is on the right side of the canvas. Good luck with any modifs!

Comment by Lawrence Easton on October 12, 2015 at 22:53

I'm not really sure either Jon. The original plan was to not have the pillar and the road there at all but then I thought "No, it'll look great if I stick the pillar in!", imagining it would enhance the feeling of depth and add some foreground interest.

Maybe I'll play around with it in Photoshop (even though that seems like cheating to me - I should be able to picture it in my head!) and see if something different works better. Maybe REALLY softening it and/or muting the colour somewhat might be the answer?

Comment by Jon Main on October 12, 2015 at 4:48

Hmm, the pillar bugs me - will softening it be enough?

Comment by Lawrence Easton on October 11, 2015 at 14:30

The edge of the stone pillar is too sharp. I will soften it a bit.