Palette Perceptions

I'm continuing with some palette ideas I started last winter and spring. You can see a couple more of them in this post from May. I'm interested in exploring how our perception of a scene changes with a warm or a cool palette, and the way a limited color range serves to harmonize a painting. This study was done 11x17" across a two page spread in a 8.5x11" Stillman and Birn Epsilon Hardbound sketchbook. I know it's not designed for wet media, but it works great. Their books will open completely flat if you break them in before you start using them, which makes it ideal for working across the spread. I used the new Golden High Flow acrylics, and just a bit of water instead of medium. I'm trying to arrange a setup that's easy to work with in the field at the same time, and hope to test drive that out on location tomorrow. I used six colors for this one. I'm very close to being happy with the selections, but I'm going to make a couple of palette changes today and try again.

Importance of Composition and Color Studies en Plein Air

I don't always do compositional sketches before embarking on a painting. When working out on location, the time to paint is always too short as it is. However, sometimes there are many elements we plan to move around or change. The sketches above are about 4.5x6", done in my Stillman & Birn hardbound sketchbook. The top one is acrylic over a pencil sketch, and the bottom one is watercolor over pencil.

In the top sketch, there was actually no pathway at all going into the field. I felt the scene needed a way to draw the viewer into the composition. I did the sketch in pencil to test drive my ideas. After setting up to paint applying some color over my pencil sketch gave me a chance to try out some color mixes too. When I stepped in to do the actual painting (in acrylic), which was 15x20, I'd resolved many potential problems before I even lifted my brush. This is the finished painting, which will be going up on my Hudson Valley Painter blog soon.

Based on the sketch I'd done, I made further changes when doing the painting. The sketch gave me a chance to consider more options.

The sketch of Croton Gorge Dam was done because the scene was so complex. I wasn't planning to make changes as much as I was trying to wrap my head around what would go where in the confusing mass of shapes, textures and perspective. It took three sketches before I had something I felt I could work with. The first two failures made me extremely grateful that I hadn't just jumped in on my 16x20" painting. Once I did this third sketch of the gorge, waterfall, dam, and bridge, I took out my watercolors and splashed some color on just to get a better idea of what it would look like. I felt I finally had a good working design, and broke out the larger panel for my painting and my acrylics.

This one still needs a few studio tweaks, but I don't think I could have captured this scene effectively if I hadn't taken the time to do the sketches. In this case, the sketches were more complicated and took a lot more time than usual. That proved to me how much I needed to do them, and how far off the mark my painting would have been if I'd neglected that step. It would have ended up as poorly designed as my first sketch of the day (which was so bad that I actually erased it even though it was in my sketchbook!)

The moral of my story to myself is that sometimes it is well worth the time and effort to Sketch Before You Paint. It's the artist's equivalent to Think Before You Speak, and Look Before You Leap!

When Ideas Are Brewing

When ideas are brewing in my head, it often takes awhile for them to emerge as finished paintings. I often play with those ideas in my sketchbook at night, or in a small format on loose pieces of paper. I had some color ideas I wanted to explore last night, so I pulled out my little half-pan watercolor travel setup for these, and used squirrel mop and sable brushes.

I usually keep a few pieces of good rag watercolor paper taped to boards and some are subdivided for sketches like this. Setting up a sheet this way is something I got from a workshop I took with the amazing David Taylor. He always advised doing these small thumbnail sketches on the side of the page in a small taped-off section. That way you can test drive your ideas (a few times if necessary) before taking them to a larger version. It speeds the process along, and you can immediately apply what you learn to the next one. I was torn between working in my sketchbook and working on the rag paper. (I love the way a hardbound sketchbook keeps all my ideas from wandering away!) But in this case, I needed to see how the colors would blend on rag paper. 

Technically, I'm not too pleased with these. However, I am happy with the way the colors are working, and I think with some more practice I'll be able to get what I'm after. Then I'll scale them up and start exploring the idea with assorted materials and techniques. One thing I've had to accept over the past few months is that the way I'm wanting to work with watercolor and acrylic requires a larger palette for those media for wash mixtures. It's always a juggling act to try to determine how much stuff we can take out painting on location, considering the need to pack light and carry it all!

Design Sketches for Palisade Memories

Click image for a larger, clearer view

Watercolor and acrylic on paper

(9x12" Stillman & Birn Beta Wirebound sketchbook)

This sheet of sketches was done to work out the major issues for an 8x16" painting of the Hudson River and Palisades. When I'm out painting on location, I don't usually have the time to plan to this degree. In my studio, however, time is on my side. I'm not having to drive long distances to locations and then try to make time stand still while the sun races across the sky and shadows change. Going through these planning stages yields a better painting in terms of composition, color, and overall design.

I began with the four tiny thumbnail sketches at the bottom of the page. Each is 1x2". I did them with black ink and a fountain pen, trying different places for the horizon, and scoping out where I wanted the boats to go. I sketched in a barge and tug for these thumbnails, but in doing so, I decided they detracted too much from the Palisades, which I wanted to keep as the main point of interest. When I went to do the larger study, I put in a small fleet of sailboats instead. They provide interest and break up the horizon line without stealing the show. Once I finished deciding what would go where, I pulled out some watercolors and played with color on the thumbnails. Then I did the larger study in acrylic, which would also be my medium for the finished painting.

Although I'd gone through all these stages, I still wasn't completely satisfied. I decided that when it came time to do the final painting, I'd shorten the foreground space so that the water and cliffs wouldn't mirror each other as much. I also wanted to scale back the tree on the left, so that it would break the horizon line, but not extend beyond the upper edge of the cliffs. You can click here to see the finished painting I did, based on this series of sketches.

Four Design Studies

Design Studies 3-6

Acrylics in a 9x12" Stillman & Birn Beta Wirebound Sketchbook

I'm going back to basics for awhile to revamp some things about my painting process. I've noticed some bad habits creeping into my paintings, and I'm really excited about correcting them and moving forward to make more of an artistic statement in my work. In order to accomplish these goals, I've dedicated this Stillman & Birn 9x12" wirebound sketchbook to the process, though I might do some of them on other supports too. This paper holds up really well to anything I throw at it, so here goes!

I'm planning to do at least one of these studies a day --- sometimes a full page, and sometimes just a portion of a page --- in addition to my regular paintings. Yesterday, I taped up a couple of pages into quarters so that I could do more of them faster. I'll do some of them in monochrome, but most in color. I may test drive different palettes too. The emphasis will be on design, and experimenting with how value, color, and composition work together in creating a painting that impacts the viewer.

These four studies were done with acrylics, using just Naphthol Crimson, Cadmium Yellow Light, Ultramarine Blue, Titanium White, and Carbon Black. I reverted to a red-yellow-blue simple palette in the interest of keeping my color clean and simplifying the process. (I usually do not use any Naphthol reds, but it's what I happened to have on hand, and whadaya know..... It worked!) I'm using acrylics because it dries quickly, doesn't lift, is opaque, and can be painted on paper. I'll probably do some of them in gouache and other water based mediums too, depending on what is convenient at the time.

In contrast to much of my work over the past few years, which builds on transparent layers, I am planning to work more directly with opaque paint on these. I'll work from life when I can, but I'll also work from photos. The two on the top of this page were done yesterday at the Eleanor Roosevelt National Historic Site in Hyde Park, New York. The bottom two were painted today from photos. The study on the bottom left was done from a photo taken during my recent Adirondack trip. The lower right is from a photo taken at my property in the Catskills.

I started out this series working the full 9x12 pages, but after the first two, I saw problems which would be more quickly resolved by working smaller and faster, and then bumping the size back up again once I've worked through the issues that I'm seeing. I'll do at least a few more quartered pages before I go larger again with these.