The Quiet at Day's End

 

25-004 The Quiet at Day’s End 

 January 26 to April 18; 8 ¾ x 14 on BFK Rives white paper, finished painting is in a gold frame.

Reference photo, used with permission: Tara Holdner 24-3e. I loved the light in this scene. As always, my goal isn’t to replicate the photo exactly, just used as a reference to do my own creation.

Small initial charcoal sketch. (Photo 24-3221crs) I loved the light in this scene. I’d done the initial small sketch in December.

 

January 26: I taped paper to the sit-down easel and measured 8 ¾ x 14, then did a quick outline sketch with a fat piece of charcoal. I don’t like the weird upside-down boat in the original photo, so I sketched it as canoe. I used pan pastels to start laying in some under coloring.

 

February 9 and 10: Worked more sky and some reflections. Getting the colors smooth and whispy-edged clouds. Added a little to the tops of the trees on the far right to start getting the sky behind them. Then, a couple days later, I added more in the sky and water, darkened the mountains and the trees.

 

February 20: Moved this to the stand-up easel. Did a little more sky, adding more pinks, et al. Then I worked the mountain/tree line. It was difficult not making a mess in the sky. I used pencils afterwards for some negative painting. I next did the big trees on the rights.

 

I took soft blue to the watery areas, then used a charcoal pencil to redefine the foreground shoreline and the area under the trees and before the tree reflections.

Gave it a light spray to see if the fixative would keep off the loose dust in the air.

March 16: I let time get away from me even though I’d done a couple touches during the past couple weeks … but never made notes. Today, I reworked the sky adding more orange, pink, yellow, and white. I used the side of a pale blue to blend. Then I extended some hint of yellow and pink into the mountains to create the haze.

 I also used a brown to make that bit of dark in the water and a hint of darker blue to extend that line in an arc to the left. I added brown to the ground under the trees on the right, then added brown, rust, and green along the bottom to start giving the foreground color.

 April 10: Moved this to the sit-down easel. I worked the sky more, adding color. I put dark greens along the horizon tree line and added highlights to the back tree on the right. I redefined the boats, did some scribbles along the foreground.

 April 11: Went over the entire thing fixing it up. Then worked the foreground, then back into the water. I worked all over, and I’m just about done. Tried to walk away a few times, then would see something to fix. I feel I’m missing something.

April 15: Did more finessing. I signed it. Too much on my mind as it’s now summer guide time and I’m too busy to paint.

April 17: Of course, I saw some flaws and sat down for a couple minutes to fix. I defined the shoreline and the jutting out area on the right. I brightened the yellow, pink, and orange. Then I added some lighter green to the foreground grasses.

Shoot, even now I see things not quite right. Ugh. I’m not done.

April 18: Went at it again. Added more to the sky, outlined better and softened the shadow ridge along the right-side dark reflections, but spent most the time adding more depth and contrasts to the lower foreground. I pretty much touched all over. Had to re-do my signature. Hoping to call it finished.

Gave it a light spray with workable fixative – in an effort to not let the dust adhere.