Jo V. Class Landscape

Here is my attempt at a different style with the class several of us are taking. As soon as I posted it, one of the trees jumped out at me looking like a donut...see if you can find it. There are lots of other problems, but this was essentially a plein air painting for me except I was inside painting along with the demo that was being done in watercolor. Feel free to comment. I'm in learning mode.

Judy - what time of the day was it and what was the light like? i find it a darker, moodier painting.

There is good overlapping and sense of distance and color temperature control.

I am finding some confusion between the large green and yellowish tree and the evergreens beside it. They look flat rather than one behind the other. Is this large tree all one an if it is behind the house, perhaps you could show the foliage running behind the roof rather than the dark line - My monitor may not show it up wekk but I can't tell if it is a limb in front of the roof or a shadow of the tree behind the roof.

And can I have coffee with that donut?

It must be about 11 AM someplace in the world on a slightly overcast day. The dark area along the side of the house roof was where I messed up and I forgot to change it. You are right about the evergreens. I had them a lighter value, but then I realized I wasn't treating them as one mass so I darkened areas to make them connect. I'll have to reduce the overall value of them.

Jo's comment was that the fence posts were too far down into the corner. He was right. That whole grass area was bothering me. I have moved the fence posts and created a feeling of a path the the house.

I haven't tackled the donut yet and that smaller bright green tree on the right is really bothering me. I'll try to post changes later today. I appreciate your comments.

Judy

Here's the revised painting. It's still not perfect but has definitely improved, I hope. sorry about the sloppy camera angle. I was trying to find a spot where the sun was not directly on it and there was no glare.

That's a really big improvement!   I especially like what you did in the lower right-hand corner.   I think there is a fresh-cooked batch of scones in the farmhouse kitchen.

By the way, we tried to figure out the dark "thing" in front of the lower left-hand corner of the house in Jo's demo (which you included too).   Hopefully it isn't the outhouse (maybe an old fridge?).

I don't know exactly what you did to improve the second picture, but it really pops now. Love it.

Dayle

Thanks Jim and Dale,

The biggest change I made was in the foreground. I stopped trying to duplicate his foreground in watercolor and added some detail without over doing it. I just felt that adding a worn path to the house brought life to the collection of buildings. Darkening the right lower corner gives the feel the fence is bordering on the edge of a slope. I'm not sure what that is between the house and shed, probably the outhouse . Some people painted it in as an extension of the house, but I'll leave it to the viewer's imagination.

Now all I have to do is remember many of the suggestion Jo gave and apply them to my paintings where I feel they will improve the landscape.

Judy

I love the area to the left - the background. It is beautiful

Thanks Dale.

The main house still bothers me because I didn't make the two sides of the roo parallel and I didn't put any overhang on the left side. I guess that is my left brain intellectualizing the realistic structure of a building. Oh well, enough time spent on this one.

Judy