Stage painting for a demo.
Autumn trees in sunlight, a new demo piece in development.
This is a work in progress. I’m preparing a new demo composition, for one I’m giving to an art group next week.
The ‘final’ picture here still needs some sorting out in terms of colours and more, so I will be re-working it (take 4!), but it just so happens that I took a couple of photos at intervals whilst doing this. I posted the finished painting in a FB forum in order to get some feedback, because I couldn’t tell if it was any good at all or terrible – to me it looks quite fake, as can often be the case when something is largely fictional as this is. Someone said it would make ‘a good tutorial’, so I thought I’d post the photos here.
Coincidentally, I have a two-part article in Leisure Painter to be published in Spring/Summer featuring virtually the same composition, except a Springtime version rather than Autumn (as this is supposed to be!).
The sky, photo taken while still wet so looks slightly darker here.
Fiddly bits, subtle blending of colours etc… Not sure they’re the right ones though…
Love the painting Jem. It’s airy and light. I like the fall from the right, it is a surprise and a delight. Could be an interesting experience driving on the road though.
Thanks Chris. Yes, someone on facebook commented ‘I’m already worrying about coming down that hill on my bike’.
Hi Jem. Many thanks for the inspiration! I recognise this from an exercise you gave us on your excellently-tutored holiday in Spain. As usual I really like your use of colour and way of representing the objects – trees grass, road etc. However, I’m going to be cheeky enough to make a comment about the design: when I first opened it up I thought the picture was on the tilt! I think this is largely because the road where the person stands is on quite a left-right slope (has he got one leg longer than the other?!). This is quite unusual because, even though it follows the slope of the hill, droves normally became quite levelled out due to the passage of farm animals over centuries. I dare to suggest that tweeking it to be nearer the horizontal would make all the difference (to me). Also, the original photo shows some undulation of the big right-hand hill, especially flattening near the bottom. Being less of a dead straight line would (to me) take away the ’tilt’ effect. I fully agree that one mustn’t be a slave to a photo or, indeed, a scene but sometimes they can show us how nature works. Hope you take this in the constructive way that is meant!
Hi Peter, and good points!
I had also worried a bit that the distance between foreground tree and figure is not apparent enough, which makes it look like either a giant tree or a miniature man! This is due to our eye level being approximately that of the track for that distance. The fact could perhaps explain away a bit about what the apparent and actual level of the track is at the man, and nearer to us, etc. But you’ve definitely a good point about the design if that is what is striking your eye. (Hope this is making sense – not easy to describe this stuff well in a few sentences!)
The ‘gateway’ where the man is stood was really just a field opening and the end of any track, in theory, as far as I’m approaching it for the painting. Perhaps a public footpath continues through, so the ‘track’ may only be quite narrow here, amongst a wider stretch in which we notice the angle of the land. It is at least a little bit less sloped than the distant ‘horizon’ line, though of course the track itself would have been levelled out as you say. I don’t want the slope of the distant line to echo the gateway. I don’t have the photo here, but I think I made the distant slope steeper deliberately, so I probably ought to do as you suggest and level the gateway as this would accentuate the difference anyway. We are not at the bottom of a hill here, rather half way up one, and I considered that the far side of that field could be any old shape or angle really; who’s to say?
I’ve changed the shape of the hillside a bit in each version I’ve done, but in all I think I’ve made it steeper (more dramatic) overall.
It’s been about balancing all the lines with the trees in front and the invented wall on the right in front again.
Other things I’ve done are designed to allow counterchange to work such as having the left-most midground tree set dark behind the foreground tree’s lit edge. If you still have the B & W photo you’ll see that there was no such sunlight at all, the tree’s being just set dark against a fairly dull sky. There are lots of things not quite right about this at the mo, and I could probably tweak it forever. I did ‘take 4’ yesterday, at full imperial size. I now have take 5 stretched and ready to go. Before I start I’ll amend the angle of the gateway by the man (at least a bit!). Thanks very much for your comment.
I love your stile very much it’s never overworked.I hope to learn from you to stop at a certain point.
Margot
Thank you Margot. To me, refinement comes from saying just enough, always striving to move towards elimination of ‘detail’ in doing so. I always try to follow my rule of ‘stop at the first moment you begin to consider stopping’. I’ve still a very long way to go though.
Interesting to see this ‘work in progress’ Jem. Often when I see proffessionals demonstrating at our art group, I forget all the preparatory work that goes into it. I am supposed to be doing a little workshop at the group on adding figures to a landscape scene soon and I am struggling with getting it together. Interesting though!
Thanks Stephen. I like to keep coming up with new demos, which means practise! A demo picture needs to be an ‘example’ of many things about the way you work, illustrating various points, as well as be do-able inside 2 hours whilst giving a commentary etc… Not everything will fit the bill, that’s for sure. What difficulty are you experiencing with your planned piece?
I could live happily with the number 3. I love the way you use the darks and lights + the negative painting parts. The subtle colours I like too and the man with his dog is a good touch. Thank you Jem. Mavis.
Thanks Mavis! Yes, the painting is meant to have examples of all the main things I tend to ramble on about, such as those you mention. I’ve just done take 4 now, and I think I’ve improved a little bit on colours and simplification, and tried growing some ivy up the foreground tree too… but it’s still not great!
I think the painting looks fresh and alive, not too cluttered! Love it.
Thanks Tricia. It could easily become cluttered, with all the foliage. Hopefully I’ve got away with it!