Azure Dragonfly Meanderings

January 20, 2014

Sketchbook

I developed my underpainting further to correct issues with dark and light, then gave everything a wash of local colour. At this point the paint application is very thin, but it gives me a good sense of whether or not I'm on the right track with tonal values:

January 17, 2014

Sketchbook

New work in progress. Recently, a good friend asked if I could create a painting of his dog Sebastian, the sweetest, most gentle Great Pyrenees you could ever hope to meet. Sadly, Sebastian passed away this past year, and this painting is in memory of what a goofy, loveable boy he was.
As always, I began with an underpainting to help bring some energy to a limited colour palette:

January 15, 2014

Sketchbook

The final stage in the painting was refining details, and fixing colour temperature. Two challenges I faced at this stage was trying to get the reflected light just right in the cool shadows of the lighthouse, and crisping up the sun-lit edges of the rocks to create the illusion of bright sunlight. In the past, painting and drawing rocks has been a personal challenge for me, so perhaps this project was just the practice I needed!

January 13, 2014

Sketchbook

By this stage in the painting's progress I had worked in most of the local colour. I spent quite a bit of time putting in multiple glazing washes of colour to establish the correct colour temperatures in both the lighthouse and the rocky terrain:

January 10, 2014

Sketchbook

The next step was to start painting in multiple washes of green in the grassy areas, and to do major work on the delicate clouds in the distance. I enjoy the challenge of painting clouds; keeping in mind that they are made up of vapour and are not solid shapes is always a tricky proposition but it's rewarding when it works.

January 8, 2014

Sketchbook

Once I had the very colourful underpainting laid in I began at the top of the painting with the sky colour. I worked to create a variety of blues, as the local colour changed quite a bit with the effects of aerial perspective:

January 6, 2014

Sketchbook

One of the projects I worked on as a Christmas gift was a painting of Peggy's Cove from a photo we took while on holidays. Here is the painting after I'd sketched out the large shapes and added the first stage of the underpainting:

January 3, 2014

Sketchbook

Happy New Year!
As promised, here is Fire Hall No. 1 with a final wash of colour to play up the character of this distinctive sandstone building:

December 23, 2013

Sketchbook

Finishing the shading on this piece was a full day's work! I'm pleased with the level of detail in the line work, and that I managed to stop before I over-worked the thing!
My final task was to apply a light wash of colour, but I'm going to save that for my next blog after the holidays.
I will be back to blogging in the new year after a little rest, but until then, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone!!

December 20, 2013

Sketchbook

It took the better part of a day to do the linework for the brick texture, but having finished that, the drawing is now nearly half done. The next step will be working on shadows.