I have another demo for y'all this week. This painting is 14 x 11 done on Heavy Linen paper using palette knife and brush. It is painted wet into wet - alla prima - with gusto - emotion - efficiency of strokes and of course spontaneity of color. You need to keep in mind that we are in Southwest Florida on the Gulf of Mexico and with the bright sun the effect of "LOCAL COLOR" is tremendous!!!!!
Some terms for the non-painter.
Wet into wet - the entire painting is done before any section of it can dry
Alla Prima - the entire painting is done in one sitting
Local Color - this is all the color from all the surrounding objects that reflect onto the object being painted. This includes the sky - the ground - and any color within reasonable distance from the object. I tend to exaggerate this but hey - it's my painting and I can do that!!!! :>)
I do a quick sketch of the scene - most of this will be covered up during the process of developing the background but I refer to the photo to get my thoughts back as to where things go
The approach I'm going to use with this painting is to paint in the background around the palm tree trunks and then develop the palm tree trunks. For this I use a brush and just in a "willy-nilly" fashion I paint in (sort of a scrubbing motion) the beginning of the "forest" behind the trunks
I'm not really being careful or exact around the trunks as later I will generate the trunks with my palette knife so exactness is not an issue
Next I want to make the background lighter at the top as the further UP into a forest of jungle you go the lighter it becomes as the sky (light source) is of course at the top :>)
So I load up my brush with yellow to get the effect of light
I throw in the yellow in a quick non-defined manner - what this does is lighten the green
With my palette knife I begin to develop the palm tree trunks - going outside the shape to get the desired shape I want & if necessary cover over some of the green background
With my palette I create the 2nd tree trunk and using a brush I develop some hints of "foliage" behind the palm trunks - in addition with my palette knife I create some of the ground the tree trunks are sitting in and on
OK - the next few photos speed things up a bit since it is time to get some "Local Color" into the painting and this is done with both brush and palette knife - at the same time the background is developed with more suggested detail and color
Detail of palm fronds
Additional color is thrown onto the trunks
Some bright "sunshine" color onto the trunks
BAM-BAM-BAM
WE HAVE A FINISHED PAINTING
Well I hope you enjoyed this demo as I certainly had a blast doing this painting.
I'll be back in about a week with another blog post - in the meantime enjoy life - smile - laugh - you'll stay a lot younger!!!
JR :>)
