PROJECT
RIGHT Sian’s paint
colour tests>brightness beyond, I also wanted
these elements to be interesting in
themselves, to lead the viewer’s eye
around the painting, on a visual
journey that would be pleasurable
in its own right.
When summarising the role of the
trees in this painting, it is worth
noting that it is an odd one. The focal
point of the painting is the sunlit
grass, followed by the play of light on
foliage throughout the painting.
For this to be the case, the trees
have to fall to the background in the
viewer’s mind, yet they are positioned
in the foreground of the painting.
INFORMATION GATHERING
There was little opportunity to sketch
on this occasion, so I began by looking
long and hard at what was in front of
me, taking time to identify what was
important to me and to begin forming
a composition in my mind. Imaging
yourself drawing a particular scene
can also help to commit the scene to
memory. I then took time to use a
camera to gather the information.
Firstly, I moved around, using the
viewfinder to compose a photograph
that captured the shapes and view
that I was looking for. Just a slightly
different angle altered the shapes of
the trunks and the negative shapes
between them, so it is important to
carefully observe what you are seeing
in the viewfinder or screen, as well as
to directly observe the scene that you
are photographing. If your camera
allows it, review the photographs
before leaving the scene.
Once I was happy with the
composition, I altered the settings on
the camera (exposure and colour
bias) to capture the other information
that I needed; I worked from the
whole set of photos, not just one.
DESIGNING THE PAINTING
I was pleased with the composition of
one of the photographs and so I based
the composition of the painting on it
with very little alteration. Similarly, the
tonal contrasts captured in the photo
were well balanced to lead the
viewer’s eye through the tree tunnel.
It will be important to ensure that the
darks are very dark, as it is the
contrast between the lights and darks
that will enable the light areas to glow.
It is worth noting that this image
contains a mixture of lost and found
edges, which will be used to lead the
viewer’s eye around the painting.
Where the trunks cross the path,
there is a huge tonal difference
between the tree trunks and the
sunlit path; the shapes are clear and
well defined. However, in the
shadows, there are lost edges, where
it is difficult to identify, for example,
what is trunk and what is branch.
These lost edges are important, asthe lost detail will cause the viewer’s
eye to keep moving, looking for
something to focus on. They also help
to simplify what could otherwise be
an extremely busy painting!
As ever in nature, the range of
greens was almost infinite, and this
would need to be simplified for the
painting. As a result of the planting of
the garden, within the scene was a
lovely arrangement of glaucous-blue
grasses, appearing almost white in
the sun, and some gorgeous, bright
yellow-greens. These were the colours
needed to draw the viewer’s eye
through the image to the path beyond
the shade. Bright Bismuth Yellow and
Winsor Blue (Green Shade) are the
basis for the necessary paint mixes,
with the addition of a little Sap Green
and Cobalt Blue.