Saturday, 31 March 2012

Tweaked and finished for now


I ended up rethinking the perspective on the left of these buildings, and getting some order to them. The other changes I made were to the windows just trying to get a better balance. 
Next I felt I needed to lift the section of the picture that's under the bridge, so used some cadmium yellow and orange in the near foreground, then took it back to mould the form of the boat, and then also to depict the lit water reflected on the bridge's arch.
The other change was to soften the shadows, to show the true colours of the walls within the shadows.

Now I need a title, so far only thought of 'Boat under a Bridge', which is descriptive but not very imaginative. I don't need to decide for a few weeks, when it will make it's first appearence in public at a Spring Exhibition, along with two other gouache studies of the same bridge(these also need titles!).

Thursday, 29 March 2012

Ponte Vecchio is nearing the finish......


Had a longer session on this today. Still lots of tweaking and finishing off but feeling like its now looking nearer completion.

Tuesday, 27 March 2012

A few more windows later....


Only a few more to go! Then its the bridge, boat and water.....

Friday, 23 March 2012

A few windows and tiles later.....


As the title suggests, alot of pondering of terracotta tiles, and windows, can't believe I'm barely halfway down the canvas! The warm weather has been very welcome, definitely can notice the oils drying faster.

Tuesday, 20 March 2012

Now for some details


Started to think about the details today, not sure how much I need. I want to represent the tiles on the terracotta roofs but I don"t want them over laboured. I can see a wonky vertical top left, so will deal with that!

Monday, 19 March 2012

Got the first layer on


Got the first basic layer on, so I can now get a feel for the balance of the painting. Generally happy with the overall feel of this, now I need to start working in the details, starting at the top where the paint has begun to dry.

Wednesday, 14 March 2012

Ponte Vecchio WIP


I've managed a little more on this today. I'm finding everything is taking me longer at the moment, I keep going on about my wrist, but I'm still really slowed down by it, I realise I was so lucky it wasn't my dominate hand, however I hadn't noticed how often I use a brush/knife in my left hand in order to get at a difficult angle. On top of recovering from this, I'm also contending with a slightly strange infliction, swaying, and I've not been on the hard stuff! Three and a half weeks ago I finished a fantastic holiday cruising the Caribbean, I think everyone expects to take a few days to find their land legs, but I've yet to find them. I usually work standing in front of my canvas, so I can use my body from all angles and step back, however my swaying is making me feel very strange so I have now found being seated is preferrable. Strangely this seems to make me feel less energised, so I keep drifting off focus. However though progress is slow, I do have a good feeling about this work, and already feel its taking its own direction, so far I've only filled in basic blocks of colours, feeling the colour balance within the composition.