Actually, in truth I will be away for a few days visiting family and celebrating my birthday and although my sketchbook will be coming with me, I am quite certain, not much art will get done. I am even not taking my DSLR nor laptop!
I will take my new-fangled mobile phone with me which will keep me entertained during the (long) train journey when I shall be reading and commenting on all of your blogs.
I had intended to finish my panoramic landscape, but after a bit more reworking of the foreground fields it is too wet to finish the sheep I had painted in, those few touches will get finished on my return. I had intended to show you this image of the stages at the end, but thought I would post it now instead.
When I get back, I am going to start a big landscape project I have in mind, but I shall talk more about that in a future post.
See you soon!
Just a quick update and an apology to everyone for my slackness in replying and commenting on blogs - it has been very busy here these past few days and I am just beginning to catch up now.
I managed a little amount of time on my landscape and here is where I am at currently:
I still have the foreground fields to work on, a bit of reworking in the sky and some other highlights to be added.
It is nearing completion!
Thank you very much for stopping by my blog and for taking the time to comment, it really means a lot to me to have your encouragement.
I managed a bit more on the landscape, I worked a fair bit on the sky but it still needs some attention, plus I blocked in some of the fields and trees. It is now beginning to look a little less purple!
Tomorrow, I may post the beginnings of another similar format painting that I have begun to draw out. I need something else to work on while the layers dry.
I have begun the next painting and got the underpainting all blocked in. Once it is dry I can begin to get working on it straight away.
It is on canvas for a change and is 30cm x 100cm (1foot x 3feet). I am using purple as the under colour so it shows through in the shadows (I hope).
I thought it was high time I did a plein air painting, so I packed up some essential supplies and got on my bike. I had identified a site last weekend, not too far from home for my first foray, so I was able to waste no time selecting my spot.
The weather was a bit dull and slightly damp this morning so the lighting wasn't perfect. I sat down on the ground with my pochade box on my lap.
My supplies were limited with only 3 brushes, 6 tubes of Griffin Alkyds, thinners and a tear-off palette. I am used to sketching a lot before I even look at my paint, but decided to force myself to use a turpsy wash instead. Because the scene was mostly green, I used cad red and alizarin for the wash. The board is just 8 x 8" and I found it difficult not to have smaller brushes for any finer details.
Here is the result, which is far from perfect (I can now see a huge compositional error straight away), but not the disaster I was afraid it might have been. I am encouraged enough to do it again and I really do not mind what the end result is, it is the process that is important to me.
