Creativity Endeavors Run Amok

Between gardening and other outside work, painting often gets put on the back burner. I pushed myself this week to finish “Angel Pose” and put “Pele and the Wind Glasses” back on the easel to touch up before bringing them to the framer.

In the meantime, I’m still picking away at “Winding through Autumn,” a painting I started in December. I worked on it here and there throughout the months and here it is July and I’m determined to finish.

I’m struggling with the lighting in the studio. Even using a daylight lamp, the light when I take the progress photos is inconsistent.

July 14 was the first day in July I work on it. 

Here’s what I wrote about the work at the time: The sky looks muddy up close. I added more blue and white. I can’t figure out why dark color gets in the sky … I should put on the fan to blow the dust downward, I guess.

I added yellow grasses, yellow greens, black penciled edges water edges. I also better defined the bare trees on the right, worked those grasses and the rocks.

July 17: Back to it again. I worked on grasses, rocks, shoreline, and started the reflections. I added a different color blue to sky and water. I’m to the point where I feel I need to sit down to do the finish work where I can get closer to better see what I’m doing.

I’m struggling where the left piece of land juts into the river, the change in the water there, and how the reflections begin.

But it’s coming along. I made a to-do list of what to “fix” and that’s not counting the muddiness of the sky. That’s driving me crazy, though standing a couple feet back, you don’t notice.

July 18: In writing about yesterday’s work in the morning pages, I pulled up the original edited photo in PhotoScape and enlarged to full screen. Oh, my goodness! I can see so much more! The question now becomes, how do I work from this … if I print an 8 x 10 on photo paper, will I see it this way?

So, I added a little saturation for printing purposes and printed an 8 x 10 on regular paper. Much better than the 4 x 6 I’m working with. It would still look better on photo paper. (photo Corey’s edited … a little more)

Now I want to get in the studio! But I have morning pages to finish and it’s an editing day. Gosh, though, can I bring this vibrance to the painting? Maybe I should wipe off the sky and re-do (it looks muddy anyway.)

I finished my writing then did a first. I brought the easel and painting outside. I’ve been saying I want to do that for a while and never made the time. 

What a difference actual daylight made on the painting! I didn’t sit, though, and I really need to do that for the more detailed work. I went back for supplies including lint free paper towel.

And so, I stepped backwards with it to go forward. I turned the board upside down and wiped off the sky, then turned it back around and wiped off the excess water. Wow, there were layers of pastel – what a waste! The amount of pastel dust floating in the air was unbelievable.

I didn’t bring out enough colors, so did the best I could for now rebuilding the sky. Then I worked the trees, bringing the tops higher into the sky, shaping them better, adding some dark. I redid lower bushes though I didn’t quite have the right shade of green.

I like it better with less clouds. 

July 20: Outside again to work while also watch tree cutters taking down leaning oak. I brought out more colors but still not quite enough.

I added more gray and blue back to the sky. Up close it still looks muddy, (think it’s because I overworked the paper itself.)

                                                                                                                                              

I’d brought out a couple deeper reds for the trees and added that. I brought the branches a little higher and made them more tree-like. I time better defining the rocks, adding more green to grasses and bushes, darks to bushes and reflections. Not bad, for now.

Tree-cutter guy said I needed to move, so I packed up. Good thing. A little while later the tip of a dead branch crashed down right on the table where I was working. Thankfully, it didn’t break the table tiles.

July 28

Time for a little studio work. I added lighter colors to trees, grasses and water. The water is getting muddy, I’ve gone over it so many times.

I used a ruler to make lines to have the reflections match the tree line, however, I found when I worked on the reflections, my trees would lean. That meant I went back in with some water blue to try to straighten the tops.

What a difference in the progress photo when I snap the picture after working outside compared to a photo taken in the studio. (The difference in color and tone between the July 20 photo and today.