Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Plein Air - Marin Headlands (part 2)

Fort Cronkhite - Met up with 3 artists for plein air painting right on the beach. It was my first time painting on location, so it was all about exploring shapes, tones and mixing colors. I was really hoping to paint 2 canvas pieces but spent all my time on just one. Here's a photo of how far we painted.
I have to admit that the extreme brightness of the clear skies and the fast change in lighting & shadows was quite challenging. Before I share some thoughts and personal critique, here's a scan of the original painting.
Bringing the painting home, I saw immediately that I forgot to keep in mind the massing of colors and tones. Lemme show you what I mean....
  1. The greens were way too saturated. I digitally added tones from the ocean and yellow hues to bring down the saturation. Now the yellow flowers felt more in sync with the greens.
  2. I didn't realize how bright of a blue I painted for the sky?! The ocean often reflects the blue sky....So I digitally added some of the ocean tones into the sky and that actually looked better.
I could have continued adjusting the whole painting, but I just wanted to share my mistakes and possible improvements next time around. It's amazing how different painting live vs. the comforts of your own studio.

Even with all the mistakes, I did enjoy painting certain parts. I just loved the beach in the far distance where tiny specks of people played in the water.
And here's a few waves that I managed
to capture with minimal brush stokes.

11 comments:

Amy C said...

your painting looks really lovely so well rendered and what a beautiful and inspiring place to sit and paint.
I love the ocean too.

yoon see said...

Yeah, I agree with amy here.
Love the serenity and texyures set in this piece.
You are painting with heart, mind and soul. Not just that, you are serious about your next piece....wanting a perfect result.
Thanks for sharing the tips on colour correction, I am slowly picking up appreciating and learning the fine art that capturing the heart of all art lovers.

By the way, are you in Dubai now Gerald?

yoon see said...

Thanks for sharing Gerald,
I love want you are doing and keep it up.
I am new in paintings & illustration.
I have never learned any of such in my art school before.
Even now when I teach my secondary students doing watercolour. Mine are just based on personal experience.
Nothing like yours so beautifully captured the attention of one viewer and slowing down for a ponder.
Guess I must find times doing more of this.

Josh Frost said...

Wow that looks pretty good duder!

I didn't know you were a artist??? Haha I'm just #@$!ing with ya!

Good job and I guess I need to start painting... You got all these chicks commenting on your blog! Sorry ladies he is taken! Come to my blog: joshfrost.wordpress.com! Haha j/k well kinda!

Mel said...

More and more impressive! Very nice as usual and I also love the beach.

Unknown said...

Great job with the painting!!

Anonymous said...

wow!
really lovely

must have been a fun day
how do you keep the sand off your canvas?

Andy C. said...

Wooo. Awesome. I'm a big fan of plein air. Keep it up with minimal brush strokes! Contrast and saturation are one of the fun challenges as time passes. Haha. Looking forward to seeing more!

By the way what size was the canvas and for this landscape what kind of brushes did you take with you? Also was that acrylic or oil paints?

The Sketchcrawl looked great. Saw it on Goro's blog as well. Thanks for sharing!

Ooo. The 100 Artist Project looks like it is making great headway. Nice tease piece for the next artist!

Pat said...

Great site, I will be back. Thanks for the comment about my sketchcrawl. I love that you shared the process about your painting experience.

Art Fan Ako said...

Very beautiful!

art fan ako said...

Very beautiful! You captured it!

Gerald's Sketch Cards

Click HERE! Related Posts with Thumbnails