Monday 9 July 2012

Riding along the shore WIP part 1









I selected a piece of board 20x50cm for this painting, not too big and not too small, the ratio feels 'right' for the sense of space that I want to portray. (There is no reason in particular for this size it just feels instinctively right and is proportionate to some of the preparation sketches that I had done.)

I began the under painting on a warm neutral ground and very loosely blocked in the main shapes of sky, sea and sand. The second stage in this painting was about setting my darkest tone in. I did this early on using ivory black in the dark masses of the water. I knew I wouldn't end up seeing the black after the layers of blue were painted on top  but they would quickly give the depth of the shadow that I wanted in this area.

Now the darks were in place I could easily judge how light the lights needed to be. More often I paint the other way around and put my lighter ranges in first but the painting was willing me to work in reverse. I thought I would go with it and let the painting dictate the way it wanted to be painted.

By the end of stage 3 you can see pretty much all of the black has been painted over. (As a side note ivory black mixed with buff titanium is a very useful colour for sand shadow in evening light. - you can see my old fear of tube black has pretty much disappeared over the last year. ;o) ) As usual I have used a number of blues; coeruleum, cobalt, ultramarine (a blue that I very rarely use) and indigo.




7 comments:

Lydie said...

Beautiful sea scene.
Thanks so much for sharing this 3 steps. Very instructive. Have a nice day !

Lisa Le Quelenec said...

Thank you Lydie. Work is progressing on this painting but at a slower pace than I anticipated. Next post coming soon - I hope!

RH Carpenter said...

Looking very good!

Lisa Le Quelenec said...

Thank you Rhonda.

Caroline Simmill said...

Lovely painting Lisa, very interesting to see how you built up the painting in layers. Hope the weather is good with you. The rain is due to clear here tomorrow!

Bruce Sherman said...

Hi there Lisa!... Stunning is the word at this point Lisa!

Your careful planning... and patient approach to layering in your various blues has created a translucent kind of light and clarified atmospheric quality! Simply beautiful!

I look forward to watching your progress towards finish!

Good Luck... and Happy Painting!
Warmest regards,
Bruce

Lisa Le Quelenec said...

Hi Caroline - wow it's wet! Just seen your stunning storm paintings - you've been very busy! Thank you about the painting.

Hello Bruce, thank you very much! I think I'm just about done now...