Japanese Stream palette knife painting
Oil on canvas board 24x30cm (approx 10x12)
This is the finished painting from day 6. I struggled with bringing all of this together and changed my mind several times. I started reading "Impressionist Painting Landscapes" by George Gallo part of the way through this and changed my colours slightly to use the complementary triad of purple, green and orange. One of George's mantras is that you should have a clear idea of the finished painting before your start. Well I broke that rule! I do find that many of my paintings are worked out as I go along. One of my goals this year is to become more disciplined and do my composition designs, tonal sketches and colour choices before I start.
How do you start your paintings? Are you organised before you start, or do you create as you go along?
Some close-ups
Dear Marion: I adore the colors in this painting. I saw it last week as well, and it has improved. Thanks for the close-ups as well. I'm still in the fairly early stages of learning, so my method is to do a tonal underpainting of a complex subject, (such as the one above) and start with a preliminary mix of colors on the palette just to see what they look like. I am not skilled enough to hit either of the values or the colors on the first shot, so there is revision along the way.
ReplyDeleteIt has been my goal for years to start a painting with a block-in, a value sketch, but have I done it? No, I get so excited to get started. What I do though, is careful edit my photograph or plein air view in the view-finder. Is that good enough? I doubt it. Your work remains very colorful, lively and happy.
ReplyDeleteHi Laurel, Thank you. Keep going and you will improve as you go along. In a while when you compare your early paintings with what you are doing you will surprise yourself with your improvement. I often change my colour choices during the painting.
ReplyDeleteHi Carol,
ReplyDeleteI hear you. When I have an idea I can't wait to start!