I covered foreground with sagebrush and dried grass colors. The contrast with the other part was not as bad as I imagined. The background plateau still looks too close though. The foreground would become more clear when I refine the colors of sagebrush and the edges. But I re-realized the color transition of dried grass would define this painting, which I might have hard time finding.
Like I said, everything in colors is relative. When I covered most of background with local colors, the mid-section is now not dark enough. As the result, I can't see difference of the distances between the background and the midsection.
After putting some sagebrush colors, I went to the background plateau and have been trying finding proper values. This part is always challenging for me for any landscape pieces. It's definitely relative to the values of foreground. But it seems to be still darker than I want it to be.
After the last update, I abruptly finished Yakima River over the weekend. I thought it could be much better. But it didn't turn out as I expected when I started painting it months before. A part of the problems was it took too long. I could have finished a couple of months ago. Anyway, I'm now waiting for a short sun break, which is good enough to take a photo.
I took a day off on Friday to attend this Fri-Sat workshop at Whidbey Island Fine Art Studio, which is located at an artist's, Cary Jurriaans's, residence on the island. Day 1 we worked on still life then from photographs for day 2. In the photos above, four still lives are from day 1 and the figurative painting is from day 2 that I painted from a photo Michele brought in (the man resembles me but not myself). The size of the surfaces is relatively small. From top left toward bottom right; bread 8"x8", plum 9"x12", apple 11"x14", vase and fruits 12"x16", man in front of a painting 11"x14".
On 10/10 I posted a photo of the first revision of the stretched canvas holder for the top box of my motorcycle. But it turned out that I couldn't close the box when I put both the holder and the field easel in. So, I needed to cut one third of it to lower the height as you can see in this photo. Now it can hold only one canvas.
The far ridge and ground are now almost in final values. Then tried to set the light colors for the tree on the right bank. But failed to come up with the right values. Too light compared to the other part. The greens of the trees need different kinds of greens to make this painting interesting. That would be the very next step I need to try.
In a week or so, I'll pick up my new motorcycle at the shop where I got my scooter last year. I love the 180 cc scooter, which is fast enough to get on the highway and economical to ride for commute. But it's not strong enough to ride over the passes to get to the east side of the mountains, or go to Portland or Belingham. So I decided to upgrade it to a motorcycle with a 750 cc engine. It's called Nevada Classic from Moto Guzzi.
I came home today from work to find a box sitting on my front porch. I ordered this vase a couple weeks ago. I was looking for one to paint a still-life from for a commission piece. When I saw this at a web site, I liked the simplicity in shape and mild colors of "Ume" tree on it. I knew it'd be difficult to paint the fine cracks on the surface (you might not be able to see them even if you enlarge the pic) but I thought I might just ignore them.
I started the third piece while keep working on two landscapes. I brought back some pictures of sheep from last Yakima trip. I was originally thinking a goat painting but none of the photos I took there was good. I didn't intentionally start drawing sheep vertically. I was painting the sides of the stretched canvas with raw umber and waited for the top and the bottom sides to dry. It actually worked better, I guess.
After getting through the forest on the right bank, I'm working on bigger shape's positions on the left bank. They're still unproportional to each other. At this early stage, I'm not worrying much about the colors. But still closing the gap with the final values and temperatures.
I just started a new Yakima painting in my studio basement. The title would be "Beyond the Horizon". 20"x26". Only less than half of canvas was covered with complimentary underpainting colors. But the composition and layout are clear already. The color contrast of midground greens would be the key to a success.
I took the same route in opposite direction from Naches to go over highland to get to Ellensburg today, which I drove yesterday to get to Yakima. Today I had a plan painting along the road, not only driving back toward Ellensburg. Before getting on the road, I got a ticket earlier this morning while I was passing Naches Hights. I didn't realize there was a school there. 8:30 in Tue morning. Probably the first day at the school. The officer was sympathetic but gave me a ticket for $211 fine. Anyway, the new gadget worked very well as I imagined. I didn't have to lay down a brush stand on the ground. The new paint thinner container was also very effective. It's hanging at the bottom of the tripod.
I attached a simple humble brush&knife holder to my field easel. I'm going to try this new accessory Mon-Tue during Yakima trip. I hope it would work as I intended. We'll see.
By the way, this is my palette while I was working on the background town. Those paints are burnt umber, quinacridone red, yellow orchre, hansa yellow light, ultra marine blue, cobalt blue, and Utrecht white(mixture of titanium white and zinc white). It's quite simple and clean if you compare it with regular artist palettes. I tend not to make many colors one time and use the same, or a little tinted/darkened, colors in multiple areas on canvas. Which is good and bad. It would give viewers more easing feeling because viewer can see color patterns on one painting. But it might fall into a pit like monotonous or dull result. Or at least I need to take more time to clean up the palette to make different types of colors. But it's also necessary because I want to make more amount of color mixtures to make layers of paint a little more thicker than I use to make. To do that, I need more surface on my palette for one mixture.
This would be the final update for this Wenatchee painting. The background hill started getting too realistic even though the layers of paints don't really overlap and you can see almost all layers just like collage if you take a close look at it. I need to stop working on that part.
Maybe I'm too concerned about the detail of the trees. I guess it's about time to step back and stay away from the area where I've been working on.
Tonight, I worked on the Yakima River a little bit. I'm still defining the positions of bigger shapes and those shapes themselves. It's still in drawing stage. I'll gradually get to the colors.
Unlike most of painters, I'm making progress very slowly. Or some might say I'm not making much progress. I can't deny that. However, that seems to be my style to get there eventually to express my emotion toward each piece. At least so far.
Finally, I started putting highlighted colors. I tried expressing subtle color variations by using Hansa yellow light and cadmium yellow medium. For these intense orangish yellows, I had to use the cadmium color, which I regularly avoid. Now the colors of poplars started vibrating on canvas.
I went to Yakima again for July 4th weekend. I enjoyed local fireworks last night. Then I drove around orchards near Sunnyside, Granger, Zillah this morning. I couldn't determine where to paint. Then finally picked this spot along Konnowac Pass Rd.
Background hill started coming along. Using reddish purple I gradually adjusted the shapes of the shadows, and filled lighter part with tilted colors. At this moment I still need to keep pushing values. But in the end, I'll fade the hill away to put focus on the poplars, which is the next part I'll work on. I want to put more lights on the part.
Next morning, I drove up Canyon Road, SR-821, toward Ellensburg. And set up my easel along Yakima river. The trees' green on the left side was showing a good contrast with the dried grass's yellow, which I couldn't recreate well on the canvas. Ironically that was why I picked this spot instead of rocky canyon views. Also, I should have made it darker as you can easily see. I spent about two hours and a half there until noon. It was not hot but breezy. I felt even chilly.
22"x30". Started with very thin layers to draw the shapes. Since the photo was taken in my dark basement (as usual) it's difficult to see the values. I know. But I need to push values to make dark darker.
Due to demand of my day job, I couldn't work on any pieces a while. I finally did it tonight. I flipped the canvas back to the normal orientation. I tried more reddish purple on the hill. I still can't decide what colors I want to use for the hill. Only idea I have now is I want to make the colors a little more reddish to keep harmony with the colors of the trees. It would cause them to go away from the real colors I saw. But so be it.
To paint the reflection of the populars against the river, I flipped the canvas upside down. But what I realized was the values of the darker part were not dark enough at the bottom of the trees. I worked on those areas and started changing colors on the hill side. Maybe I should start putting lights to decide the colors.
I haven't gone any field trips for a while. I felt I needed to go out again. So I did it this memorial day holiday weekend. To avoid traffic jams, I drove to Yakima last night and stayed at Motel6. Then drove east to find a spot to paint this morning.
I don't remember how long I didn't make any progress on this piece. About a month, or more? Actually no others are going on. Due to my possible life changing event related to my business life, un-related to art making, I couldn't spend much time on painting. And no time for field trip to paint outside on weekends. I managed myself to frame all pieces I'm plaining to show in the next show though.
From here, I would make some color adjustment for some particular parts, which probably can't be seen well in this resolution of photos w/ this level of lights. I'm still not satisfied with the browns of the left horse. I want to put more highlights to them as well. I might make the ground thicker too. And some other things I want to do....
Whiling filling colors for the background hill, I started questioning myself about the colors of the hill. The reference photo is showing too bluish colors. To make up my mind, I went to Wenatchee last weekend to see actual colors. Since the season is spring, instead of autumn, the hill was more greenish with short grass. But it was mainly yellow-brownish. My on-site painting was likely more closer to the actual colors.
Shapes are almost done. Started looking for colors. I tested some highlighted reddish colors with the left horse. I'm not satisfied yet. While waiting for them to dry, I'll add some more layers on the right horse next.
I started this painting that I originally painted on site last fall. I really liked unbalanced contrast between the yellow poplars along the river and the bare hill.
