Vermont Barn - Step 3

Vermont Barn - Step 3
Oil  20" x 20"

Day 22 in the 30 in 30 Days Challenge

At this point I've started adding color to the barn.  I painted the largest dark mass first, which is the shadow side of the barn.  Then I painted the light side of the barn.  This side has light as well as  shadow from the silo.  I'm not sure if the light side is light enough, even though it's pretty close to the value.  Since a color mass is not accurate until seen in relationship to the color next to it,  I'll have to wait until the sky and roof are in to know for sure if the light side is light enough.

When looking at the value study, I decided that even thought the trees and bushes on the right of the barn created one large shape, it wasn't working.  So I removed those and added a shed, or barn continuation onto that side.  (That was an easy remodel!)  Now the building and composition work better due to the continuation off the page.

To be continued...

Composition and Value

Composition and Value

Day 9 in the 30 in 30 Day Challenge

As I stated when I started the 30 in 30 Challenge, although I paint a lot, I don't paint every single day, and I don't paint that many small paintings.  But, I like a challenge and I like to make things work.  So, this week I'm working on a 20 x 20 of a farm from our visit in September to Vermont.  Everyday I'll post about 1 to 2 hours worth of work until I'm done.

One of the fundamentals of drawing and painting that can be challenging is composition.  We know that a painting needs a good composition to work.  But, what makes a good composition?  When you look at the work of a master in a museum, why does it stand out?  What piece in a gallery really draws you?  Sometimes it's the strong light, sometimes it's the bold or subtle value and color, sometimes it's the great composition.  There's a lot more to a painting than just painting.

Very basically composition is the placement of the dominant mass(es) and line(s).  I like the movement in the upper right sketch because the lines of the cornfield move up to the mass of the shape of the farm.

As many of us do, I have a lot of art books.  Two of my favorites are Composition of Outdoor Painting by Edgar Payne and Carlson's Guide to Landscape Painting by John F. Carlson.  I was much newer to painting when I first got these and found them hard to get through.  I've read and reread them (sometimes only a chapter or two at a time) over the years and appreciate all that they teach.  I love Paynes' drawings for his suggestions for design.  They are so helpful when landscape painting.  Carlson also has diagrams showing dominant mass and line schemes.

I don't do sketches like this with every painting, although I probably should do more.  I knew that I wanted to paint some of the barns and farms in Vermont.  I took so many photos that had good starts for a painting but needed work.  So I spent quite awhile just editing photos, before I even got to sketching.  After I picked four that I liked and thought would work I tried to get the composition working on the photo, then adjusted it as I sketched.  I don't always grid my sketches, but find that that is helpful with architecture.  By the time I got to the end of these 4 sketches I'd probably been working for about 2 hours.  I'm not used to photoing white, so the values don't show up very well.

Circle Squared

Circle Squared
6" x 8" oil on panel
$100.00 + $10. s/h

This is another from my study of Edgar Payne's compositions:  circle.  In this one I'm using the tree trunks and the lines of the ground to create the circle.  I'm bringing you into the composition near the lower left, having your eye come across the diagonal of the ground to the bottom of the aspen trunks on the bottom right, up the trunks, across the top of the mountain range and down the trunks in a kind of geometric circle.