Keeping Callie Company

Last Wednesday I started this new painting of a golden rain tree from a photo I took this past summer at a nearby park. I didn't take a photo of the sketched in stage, but I drew it on the canvas with watercolour pencils. I didn't do a background underpainting. Next I went ahead and filled in most of the areas of colour, to get the tonal values in and ensure I was pleased with the composition. I'll post the next stages as I complete them.

Sofie, Thank you for sharing your progress! Your painting is looking great! How big is your painting? Doing figures that small must be a real challenge.

Thanks Janet

Sorry - I knew there was something I forgot - I'm using a 14x18 canvas. I don't think I'd attempt a landscape with figures on a smaller one - as it is, this size is a bit of a stretch, but it is the only size canvas I have at the moment, aside from all the 6x8s for my daily paintings.

Sofie!
Glad to have such good company! The tree foliage is already looking very good, and the people are placed just right to make for an intriguing picture.

There's plenty of room in here if anyone else wants to jump in

Thanks Callie.

I've done a bit more work on it - put in the rest of the darks on the leaves, and the yellows on the honeylocusts in the background (the little trees) and some colour in the grass too. I'm starting to move some of the patches of sky through the leaves to acheive a more pleasing pattern.

It "feels" like a summer evening to me, with the shadows getting long and the golden light

Looking great! I love the colors that you've added!

Thanks Callie and Janet. I think it's working!

This is how it looks now. I should have taken a midstage photo, but I got caught up in painting. This was my complete next session. It is pretty well done, I think. I just want to add some yellow highlights, and it'll need to be dry for that or I'll just get green. Because of the incessant rain I had to take the photo indoors with a flash so there's a bit of glare on the wet oils.

It looks like it is progressing beautifully. I can't wait to see it completed.

Judy

Wow! Looking wonderful! I love the definition that I'm seeing in the figures now.

I like how the composition of this works. I go to the tree trunk first, follow it into the foliage, wander around the branches (moving to the left), and pop out at the area where the people are.

Thanks so much, Judy, Janet and Callie.

I'm not going to do very much more to this. I like to keep things a bit loose, with a more spontaneous feel - if I work it too much it'll look studied.

You've got a really interesting and distinctive style Sofie... I love that foliage! Especially how you worked that negative space back and forth between the leaves and branches. I think you're right to keep it loose and soft - one of the hardest things as a painter is to know when to stop!