Part 3 - Assignment 3a

I've decided to make my final piece of work for Part 3 a development of the Open Shelter and Sheds drawing from the previous post.

I want to introduce some colour but I think that to try a water colour might be too complex for my skill level.  After drawing in my initial pencil shapes I'm going to try a mixture of techniques:

1. water colour wash for the sky (raw sienna and aquamarine blue)
2. stippled trees in background (pale payne's grey) wet on wet
3. water colour wash for the ground
4. removal of any unwanted colour inside sheds (should be minimal)
5. more prominent trees water colour (payne's grey)
6. card strips for the shed detail (peat brown Indian ink) 
7. card strips for the logs in the undergrowth
8. blown ink for the undergrowth
9. swishy marks with filbert brush for the lane

Some of these things need a bit of sampling 2, 8 and 9 most definitely.  I would like to be a bit flamboyant with the undergrowth but it depends on how it looks when I get there.

I know my course notes say I should use A2 or A1 paper but as I want to use water colour as a way to indicate distance I'm using Bockingford paper that's A3 because that's what I have.  I began with my washes. 

• Sky - I immediately knew that the sky needs less (if any) raw sienna.
• Lane - I had a practice at the lane on scrap Bockingford and was happy but when I did it for real the paper was too wet and I didn't get the texture right.  Later I tried lifting out some paint but it didn't give me what I wanted either. 
• Background - I didn't put in enough background bushes in the distance or the foreground.  

At this early stage I decided that this would be a trial.  

Assignment 3 (1)

Once I had decided this I did no more practice runs.

• Sheds - I used ink for the sheds as planned but I think thick, dark payne's grey might be preferable.  
• Trees - I like the foreground trees but with reservations.  They are well placed but I could do with another one above the long shed.  They are also a little on the yellow side.  I used raw sienna as the highlight and then introduced payne's grey but could have done with a little more.
• I'm reasonably happy with the buildings except for the corrugated tin on the roof of the long shed - the angle is so wrong and I knew it was the minute I applied the ink.
• I need to develop the undergrowth a bit but in principle it's done what I wanted.  I found the ink didn't travel as well on the bumpy paper, it dried quicker so it didn't mix as well as on my earlier trial. 

Next time:

• Sky - blue only
• Lane - more texture with drier paper
• Background - more bushes
• Sheds - payne's grey watercolour, watch the angles
• Trees - more paynes grey on trunks, raw sienna for highlights only, additional tree
• Undergrowth - try water colour

Assignment 3 (2)

The changes I made are largely for the better:

• it's less yellow
• there are more bushes
• the grey sheds are a bit more definite and the corrugated roof looks better
• the water colour undergrowth blew better but is more effective on the right than the left.
• the background trees

There are things I could change:

• the additional tree is too chunky and probably too central
• the lane is now a bit wishy washy
• work the middle ground trees up a bit

I'm going to live with it for a day or two before I commit myself to it being fully fledged Assignment 3.

I returned to this and thought it was awful.  This happens sometimes - I get so tied up in what I'm doing I lose objectivity and it takes some time before I regain it.  What's wrong?  Lots.

• the style of the foreground trees is wrong for the style of the sheds and undergrowth
• the sheds don't look an intrinsic part of the scene
• the background trees look like sticks because of my technique (card)
• my perspective just isn't right.

Considering how exasperated I feel about this work I'm going leave it and relook at the Tumbledown Shed drawing and hope it poses less problems and that this experience will be a learning point.