Commission OneCommission one is a commission observation page to watch the progress of a work of art. In this case the commission was generated by Country Club Editions for the Old Marsh Golf Club in Florida. 
The sky was painted in as well as a blue reflection at the bottom of the canvas (permanent blue, a touch of yellow ochre in the titanium white). The sky reflection at the bottom was painted smoothly with no impasto so that when an over painting of reeds is applied the stroke of the brush is neither confused by a complex background nor disrupted by the blue paint under the stroke. I smoothed the blue paint with my finger, which is often my favorite tool. Near the horizon I painted the sky with a touch of pink (alizarin crimson). The higher you get in the sky or lower in the foreground the more I intensify or darken the color, this cradles the middle subject and intensifies the middle light.
After a day or two to dry the background I over painted the tree backgrounds using permanent green with burnt umber at the base of the trees. This gives a warm depth under the canopy of the trees.
You will notice that I fill the negative area of the trees with the pink which throw the trees forward and defines them against the sky. Here I pay attention to the photos that the club sent to show me the details of the hole. Later I was asked to change the pink to white because we were looking north and sky would not be pink. I replaced the pink with white and moved on. Through this all notice that the bottom edge of the trees was always kept sharp and crisp, this is not by accident. Within the trees certain tree trunks and points of depth were darkened using the sap green and burnt umber combination. This was put there to help me keep my place for the details of the forest to come. I may even scratch some of the paint free to show a stained canvas underneath. 
Details can be implied by using a fan brush to push the paint around as I did in the green background color of the forest prior to adding any other details. Many times your initial strokes are uninteresting and often hard to detail around when dry. With a fan brush you can mold the wet paint like a sculptor again and again until it defines your background. This way you can sketch without a pencil (the graphite often fouls the paint). It is better to sketch with paint whenever possible. 
Now notice when sap green and cadmium yellow are bushed lightly and thinly with a small flat brush and a thinning of turp then dryly brushed afterwards. The canvas comes through much like a watercolor. When that technique is used the dark edge of the forest pushes the light green of the fairway forward. By contrast the depth of the forest is darker and the fairway is brighter. Nice technique isn't it? If you paint with white pigment mixed with your green instead of the luminosity of the gesso on the canvas it will look dull. The colors will not glow. A light painting with turpentine makes the difference. You can add thick paint latter if you want. You will notice that I am moving downward on the painting. This keeps everything clean. I also use a broom handle to rest my hand on to keep from damaging the things that I like and it also helps steady my hand for a smooth stroke. The details on the trees (leaves) are applied with a small thin watercolor type brush. These dots are placed together where the sun hits a cluster of leaves and describes the shape of the tree. I use pretty much the same colors as the grass. That bright contrast always looks good. A little cadmium red light mixed in on occasion looks nice and changing the greens slightly with yellow ochre or adding more titanium to high points on the leaves works too. An otherwise boring group of trees can be brightened by a passage of light cutting diagonally in a place where a compositional devise is needed to move the motion of the eye about your painting. A line of light passing behind a tree can sometimes add a pretty little detail in the right place. 
The details that fill the foreground are the compositional devices that bring the watcher into the painting. The strokes of the various colors of reeds are done with very wet paint mixed with lots of turpentine and a bit of varnish using two sizes of fine long lettering brushes. The lily pads and lilies were added last and in order from back to front. My signature is always added to the side of the canvas that supports the best compositional balance . The Old Warsh Golf Club is very proud of their record of environmental awareness. Designing a golf club around the needs of endangered species is a remarkable feet. Note the two Sandhill Cranes on the left. There are many artists who have what I call 'a big hand', In other words they paint the entire canvas all at once. Their hands and arms are constantly moving in an energetic symphony. It is beautiful to watch and it works for them. But if you are a retrospective realist as I am, you may find that this way works for this subject for some artists. Enjoy yourself and experiment with color. |