I wasnāt very good at painting and not that committed to improving. Ā I would have…
A Miserable Night In Torquay
I still have three new books sitting on the shelf and it would be very easy for me to stop painting for a month while I read them all. Ā But then I wouldn’t get as much out of the books as I would if I painted in between and tried out some of the new techniques I’ve been reading about. Ā So, first up I thought that, after reading Joseph Stoddard’s book on Expressive Painting, I really needed to paint a rainy night scene while the lessons were still in my head.
I picked Torquay’s most famous hotel as my subject with the “stretch objective” of making it look welcoming. Ā I started by sketching it out in pencil, then drawing over the pencil with a cheap waterproof rollerball. Ā I then plonked on an underpainting with some white space in the middle, surrounded by Indian yellow, surrounded by quinacridone magenta, surrounded by French ultramarine. Ā And then I went over the underpainting a second time – as I said in the book review, Stoddard likes to lay it on thick.
And then the rest was tinkering, using my three primaries plus burnt sienna, sepia and titanium white. Ā So I added trees and foliage, shadows on the building, people, etc. Ā And I coloured in the roof, chimneys, external features and some of the windows. Ā And you can see how I’ve splattered some stars and added a sign.
There’s so much that works about this one. Ā Stoddard’s ideas about nighttime painting are brilliant. Ā I should try this again at some point. Ā I’m pleased with how I have some of the shadows working on the building. Ā And, for the first time in a while, I’m really happy with the trees and foliage – adding a bit of red worked out well, as did choosing carefully where to add the yellow to bring out the light.
What don’t I like? Ā Well, the reflections in the road aren’t working yet. Ā And the people in the foreground don’t harmonise with the rest of the painting, despite being painted in French ultramarine and quinacridone magenta. Ā Maybe I needed to add in some of the yellow too, and maybe not make the people monotone. Ā But the biggest problem with the painting is the signpost. Ā With the hotel in the background being in focus and the people in the middleground being more blurry, the sign should definitely not be in focus. Ā Oh well. Ā When I come to frame this one, I’ll be cropping out the signpost, even if it means losing the tree.
This one’s for sale provided I can get hold of a 9 inch square frame. To see the price, click here.
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