Someone Needs a Makeover

Have you ever watched the show, What Not to Wear on TLC where Stacy London takes some frumpy fashion failure and transform her into a dynamic dashing diva?  The show always ended with a revealing of the NEW look and they would give us a reminder of the past by presenting a BEFORE and AFTER comparison.  I kind of feel that this is what I'm trying to do here while writing this blog.

I call this piece "At the Rivers Bend" and I painted it originally as a study on water reflection using a snippet from artist Jerry Yarnell's and his online school resources.  There was a lot about the piece that I liked but over the next two years, as my skills improved, there was more and more about the piece that I didn't.  

In preparation of hanging my exhibit "Down Country Roads" at the Boulder City Art Gallery, I was going through my closet and came across this piece.  I knew that the time had come to give this piece a COMPLETE MAKEOVER.  And just like the TV show, I have included a before and after photo and I thought I would also provide for your reading pleasure a personal commentary on the changes.

Before 

"At the River's Bend"- 18x24 Acrylic painting

1.- I lightened the sky and water.  I'm not sure what shade of blue I used originally, but it appears too dark and purple to me.  I'm guessing we might be looking at cobalt blue.  I changed the whole tone by lightening and brightening with cerulean blue instead.  The water is simply a reflection of the sky so they have to be the same color but just a few shades darker.  I also added some fluffy summer clouds.

2.  Probably the most obvious edit is the adding of the canoe and the fisherman.  I felt the original painting lacked a story and by adding the fisherman I have added a focus to the piece that was absent before.  I personally love fishing and whenever I look at a beautiful river or lake, I always wish I could throw up a lawn chair and grab my rod and reel.  I'm not much of a boater but for the sake of the composition, I think a canoe has much more appeal over an old lawn chair sitting in the grass.

  

3.  The tall reeds that are growing at the edge of the far bank were too uniform.  They appeared to be cut straight across like a hired landscaper had recently come along with giant hedge clippers and had given them a good trimming.  I always fall into that trap and have to consistently remind myself that in nature everything is random. It must be my years spent as an accountant because I still struggle with this.   I also moved the little tree to be growing behind the reeds instead of almost floating in water.

4.  I finished off my edits by embellishing the foreground and the little area in front of the canoe by adding a few fallen logs jetting out of the water and some rocks.  Almost every element added has to cast a reflection on the water so you can see I have duplicated the impression of the shape in the water.

I hope you enjoyed this little before and after comparison.  The new and improved "At the Rivers Bend" is currently added to my exhibit and is on display at the Boulder City Art Gallery.  I will soon be making the image available on my website at JulieTownsendStudio.com.  Just contact me if you questions about this or any of my other works.  

Thank you for stopping by and spending a few minutes of your day with me and my blog.

Time for a Make Over

I'm pretty sure I'm not the only artist out there that has painted something to then several years later pull it out from a dark corner of the studio storage closet to have a "What was I thinking?" moment.  After all, even the masters were known to paint over pieces that they decided they didn't like. Have you ever painted over a canvas or do you just open a new one?   

Last week I pulled out the piece I painted back in 2012 and was struck with what I saw were flaws in my composition and execution.  I had an overwhelming desire to FIX it!  And fix it I did.  This painting is 24 x 36 and was based off photo and memory of our hike at Galena Creek Trails near Reno.  The Aspens were ablaze with color and the chill in the air was invigorating.  I painted several pieces based off reference material taken during that hike but this was one of two larger pieces that I painted.       

This was my original piece that I called "Morning Trail"

 I really liked the idea of the aspen grove and the trail that goes off the canvas to the right and then continues towards the top.  It gives that fell of climbing to a higher elevation.  I liked the shadows and light but I didn't care for fence that seemed too tall and was cutting the canvas in half.

Undergoing a drastic transformation

I approached this make over backwards to how I would have painted the original piece.  Rather than painting top to bottom I actually began in the bottom right corner and began working my way up the painting.  I was happy with they bottom portion of the composition right away and couldn't wait to see how the rest of the changes I had in mind worked out. 

Completed just today- "Mountain Trail"- 24 x 36 Original Acrylic on stretched canvas

Here you can see that I have painted over most of the foliage and removed the fence.  I wanted the leaves to have a dainty shimmering appearance that is so typical of aspen trees and I felt that I really had to redo them to get that effect I wanted.  I left the back ground trees in place but decided to change the middle ground aspens to be more of a small sapling growth. 
For more depth I added a mountain range visible in the background and let more pine trees be visible.  The pines make a very nice dark background to contrast the bright yellow of the aspen leaves.  Rather than an old split rail fence, which was actually really part of the scene there on the trail, I decided to add a fallen tree.

PLEASE LEAVE ME A COMMENT AND LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK.  DO YOU AGREE THE PIECE IS NOW IMPROVED OR DID YOU LIKE THE ORIGINAL PAINTING BETTER?

Autumn Gold- 24x36 Original is sold

16x20-Galena Creek Trails

Galena Aspens

What I learned in my first painting lesson

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of taking my first real painting lesson.  I wasn't sure what was expected, so I took not only a blank canvas, but a quick painting that I had started recently.  I thought it would be a good idea to ask her opinion on the piece.  Of course, when you ask a fellow artist for an opinion, you have to be ready to receive an answer.  She started out with "Your mountains look good, BUT..."  then followed about 10 items that I had done incorrectly.  I watched as she made some changes with her brush and knew she was pointing out the things I too have criticized about my own work.  Below, I have included a before and after the lesson and then summarized many of the things I learned.  I would love to hear if you find any of this helpful.

1.  With large bodies of water you have to break it up to make the composition interesting.  The farther the water is away the darker it will appear.  Never use white unless you are painting waves with foam like you would see when painting an ocean scene.  Adding white to many of the bright colors result in not brightening but rather causing a graying of the color.  With water it is better to paint lines of lighter blue.  Cobalt and Cerulean make a nice color for the water for the closer to the shore but Ultramarine Blue is a wonderful color to paint the water in the distance.  Always paint water strokes horizontal to the horizon.

2.  The detail on the distant shore like should be more impressionistic.  In this painting, my shore line is too straight and the trees are too even.  Adding blue highlights to the distant shore gives the appearance of the distance

3.  My clouds were mixed with White, Paynes Gray and Cerulean Blue.  Lily recommended that I mix a purple gray shade for contrasting clouds.  She mixed a very small amount of Alizorin Crimson with Cerulean Blue and white.  The smallest touch of Paynes Gray gave a light shade of gray purple color that made my clouds pop.  The clouds also were too uniform and needed variation of the edges with break offs.  Lily referred to a tickling the clouds as she painted and then used a hake brush to blend dark to light with light sweeping strokes.

4.  Compositional the dead tree that extends from the bottom of the canvas takes away from the painting by drawing your eyes down to the edge.  Lily immediately began taking the lower portion of the tree away by painting the lake water and rocks over that area.   It was decided to leave the upper portion of the tree and add some sparse foliage to add to the feeling that the tree is dying.  This change allowed the reflection of the trees in the water to better be seen.

5.  The trees on the distant shore would not have such a highlights so we removed them and made the shore line irregular in shape.

6.  Over and over I have tried to break my habit of painting rocks that look smooth and round like all rocks on the earth's crust have been polished smooth by the ocean.  Lily pointed out that the shadow from the trees would result in just dark shapes of the rocks and not highlighting.  Also we broke up the rocks by creating sharp edges and removing the white highlighting.  She would paint dark paint with an angle brush, then use lighter painting to focus the edges of the rocks and then again with the dark to establish the bottom and cracks in each rock. I also learned that a good dirt color contains yellow.  Burnt Sienna, yellow, paynes gray and white will make a really good dirt color.

7.  The original rocks that I had painted and that extended out into the water appeared to be magically floating on the water surface.  We painted a group of them out but decided that a little grouping of rocks jetting out of the water added interested and broke the water up in the composition.  Lily shared a trick of painting the rock and then coming back in and cutting the rock by adding the water line about 2/3 down.  This allowed the remainder of the rock below the surface to appear as a reflection.  Then you come back in and add horizontal lines to across the reflection to give the appearance of water shimmering.  We also painted a number of very small rocks where the water and shore line met to give the impression of a rocky shoreline.

8.  The island needed to extend out to give the appearance of depth.  We added an additional line of rocks that gives the impression of the island extending on around rather than ending in a sharp edge.

The final result is what I believe to be a much better painting.  I'm just SO excited to be taking lessons and can't wait to work on the new oil painting that I started.

Painting lessons

I think there comes a time in the evolution of artistic growth that you have to receive actual lessons from other successful artists. Today is that day for me. I feel that to accelerate my skill to a higher level, it is necessary to take some lessons and so I have schedule a session with a wonderful local artist, Lily Adamczyk. To check out her work, just follow this link to her gallery album.  https://plus.google.com/photos/114822472710447410577/albums?banner=pwa

Her skill in painting landscapes far exceeds my own and so I am looking forward to my 2 hour painting session with her today. She asked me last night what I wanted to work on during my lesson today and my reply was that I needed to improve specific landscape elements such as water, rocks and clouds. I really feel that I am going to learn a great deal from Lily and so I am going to blog each week about my lessons and share my accomplishments. Right now I'm looking at a blank canvas, white and empty but full of potential. My Saturday stretches before me and I can only dream of that completed piece that will soon emerge. I think that is the magic of painting...the possibility of transforming that blank canvas into a work of art.