Positioning leaves are not so easy

I still keep moving around leaves on the canvas. Originally they were too high so I moved them downward. To define each major leaf I need to decide the color of background shade and carve it out. I think I want to put more colors at the bottom for the highlighted part of grass.

New Tripod

My current tripod that holds my hand-made pochade box got a crack at the top plastic part. I've been thinking how I can fix it or get it replaced a while.

But when I visited Portland last weekend for gallery/PAM walk, a friend of mine in Portland gave me a heavy duty tripod. It's Bogen Manfrotto 3001 made in Italy. It has a heavy (14 oz) mini ball head attached (right photo). It took me a while to detach it, which I finally did today using a bench vice because it was very tight after carefully examining how I can do it without breaking anything.

That particular model has been discontinued. But the top of the base unit has a 3/8" standard thread (left photo) so I can attach any manufacturer’s head. I'm now looking for a clamp head to hold binoculars or something heavy. And I'll build a stretched canvas holder that can securely hold  up to 12"x16" canvas and attach it to the clamp. Then build a folding box pallet that can be tightly attached to the two legs of the tripod. I got some idea how to do it from a pochade box at an art supply shop in downtown Portland. It's going to be a long term project. The outcome would become my Ver.2 pochade box system.

"Sauvie Sky"

On the way back from Portland on a perfect summer day, I stopped by Sauvie Island on Columbia River along US-30. I spent only a little more than an hour to paint this. But I thought I made the shadow part much darker. Then sky was a little less color than I thought it was. Next time, I need to remember and avoid the same mistakes.

Reversed the process slightly

As most artists do, I regularly make bigger shapes by defining/refining shadow(negative) shapes. But this time, since I've been too busy in day job and didn't have time to even stand in front of canvas for last three weeks, I needed to do something differently to regain confidence and remember what I was up to. So, I decided to define highlighted(positive) shapes at this early stage. The effect was immediate as you can see in this small photo.

A bit different landscape

After last two, or three, workshops, I started feeling I have to change the way to pick the composition and paint en plein air. Now I feel none of my recent trials outside are not good enough to make studio paintings from. As the result, I needed to find something from photos I took instead. And I started looking closer subjects than before. Then picked this one I took near North Bend very recently.

The title would be "summer shade". There is no "back ground (farground) in this. Only nearground and mid ground. I covered the shadow area with dark cool green. The size is 14"x18".

Base values are filled

To me this is a little surprise but the bigger shapes (horses) are good already. Darkest dark and lightest light are filled by now. The background green should be much lighter in the photo but for the contrast, I might make it darker. We'll see.

White Horse is the next

In this composition, the horses stay a little higher on the canvas because a band of daisies is at the bottom. The key shapes are mostly whitish. Transferring subtle color changes to other colors would be the key of this painting. The size is 14"x20".