January 2011 Demo 2 Part 1

This demo is an example of painting a cabin in a clearing.

I chose an image of a cabin that gives a nice angled view of the cabin. I made sure I placed the cabin slightly off centered on the canvas, keeping the sky and ground different sizes.

I blocked in the sky using blue and white keeping the upper part a deeper value than closer to the horizon. I mixed in streaks of white for the hint of clouds without getting fussy about them.

The grass also has a deeper value at the bottom and gets slightly lighter towards the house. This keeps the grass appearing flat and not looking like a green wall. I blended in a few streaks of red and yellow to keep the green looking natural.

I made the shadow of the cabin in the grass. I also put some shadows in the grass near the corners.

I put in the trees with vertical strokes keeping the ones by the sides slightly taller than those in the middle of the canvas. The helps keep the viewer's eyes in the painting and focusing on the cabin. Trees have darker values near the base and are slightly lighter in value near the tops where they get more light. The trees are indistinct since this is a painting of the cabin and not a landscape about trees. I want to keep the star of the painting the most tightly painted area rather than the background.

I will continue the demo next week.

Artist Jackie