I've been working on this painting all fall and finally finished it! I signed up for Mike Bailey's Beyond the Obvious class and need to take my painting off the board so I can stretch some fresh paper. So I had some incentive to get it done.
I'm pretty happy with it at this point. I think I ended up with sort of an H composition (or maybe an upside down W). I was pleased with the way the squiggles in the water were repeated in the squiggles in the brick in the far wall. And I think the light/shadow pattern on the far wall helps guide your eye to the gondola focal point.
I really struggled with all the detail, and was initially afraid to get darker because I thought it would make it look too busy. But putting in more small value contrasts actually helped make your eye move across the paper. I stuck to a very limited pallette: Azo orange, Cad Red Light, Turquoise, and Thalo Blue.
There are probably still things I could improve, but I think I'm ready to pull it off the board!
2 comments:
Your color selections worked beautifully to capture the feeling of a canal in the backwaters of Venice. The mood is quiet and peaceful, as the city can be in the late evening when the hordes have left. Did you mask the lightest reflections in the water ot paint around them?
Thanks, Janice.
Yes, I did mask around the light reflections in the foreground, but many of the ones in the back I painted in.
I've decided to call this one "No Wake Zone" to try to reinforce the quiet feeling.
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