In the Woods again

I was in the woods again on Saturday. In a week the buds have begun to arrive on the trees so I am in the ‘in between’ period of ‘not quite so bare’ trees. No leaves yet (on deciduous trees), but not bare twigs as in the previous painting of this area. I used the point of the painting knife to scratch suggested details into the bare branches. To keep a uniformity of texture over the entire painting surface, I placed ‘blobs’ of colour and broke it up with the knife. This produces a different ‘randomness’ of shapes to the type seen in this painting of a woodland. It has an almost ‘photographic’ look when compared to the woodland painting. Its also time consuming. I used this technique to suggest the ‘almost invisible’ wire in the Hen Run painting. In the above scene the individual buds could not be seen, but the branches had a ‘fatter’ look, unlike the sharp twigs of the frozen winter landscape. I will return here in a month or so and see do the leaves add anything interesting to the scene from a painting point of view.

The colours used were: Burnt Sienna & Raw Umber (red), Yellow Ochre (yellow) and Cobalt Blue. Sap Green, black and white were also used. Sap Green is easier to control than Viridian. Its not as strong a colour and has a more natural look. It mixes well with Yellow Ochre and when white is added does not loose much ‘chroma’. Unfortunately, its a distinctive colour and if used in all paintings requiring ‘spring green’, will tend to get boring. Other greens I find useful are the Chrome Greens, Light and Dark but they tend to ‘die’ a little when white is added to mixes.

I will work on the video of the painting process in the next few days. Even in ‘speeded up’ mode you will see how the knife is used to texture the undergrowth and bare branches of the trees. See you then.