The Wall Of Rochester Castle

I found a nice spot to park near the castle and was struck by the amazing view there, with a castle wall at the top of a hill.  So I set up camp there and got to work.

O thought I’d start with a pen and wash, so put down some outlines and the odd brick in the wall with a rollerball.  There were cars parked in the road and my plan was always to leave these outlined without painting them in.

So once the outline was down, I applied the paint.  My main three colours were cerulean blue, rose dore and raw sienna (the key of green warm) but the plan was always to use green apatite genuine in the greenery and I also used some French ultramarine and hematite violet genuine, spattered on some cadmium red and yellow and put in some titanium white highlights.

So, yes, the colours.  I didn’t want the greens to be samey, so I started with green apatite genuine and dropped cerulean blue and raw sienna in places.  I wasn’t happy with this, so also put in some rose dore to calm down the greens and some French ultra to darken them in places.  The stonework and brickwork started as a mix of the three primaries, with the proportions varied as I went along.

Because all the different brick and stone shapes were slightly different colours, the painting was lacking a bit of harmony, so I mixed up some hematite violet genuine and raw sienna and applied this as a glaze over all the stones and bricks.  And as a final step, I applied cadmium red and yellow spatters and titanium white highlights and added some figures.

I stopped at this point.  I probably could have dabbed in metal fence posts with a flat brush or credit card but, to be honest, this painting was already a flop and beyond redemption.

What could I have done differently?  Well, I could have

– used lots of  rollerballs with different thicknesses.  There’s a set on my Amazon wishlist, so maybe I’ll strike lucky on Fathers’ Day or my birthday

– added lots more detail with the rollerball.  We’re talking all the bricks and stones, not just the odd one here and there.

– only added the odd bit of greenery on top of stonework and brickwork rather than replicating the scene in front of me and having lots of big green shapes.

– left more areas untouched by paint.  In particular, the outer bits of the sky and the big green triangle in the foreground.

– started the stonework with an underpainting of mingled primaries rather than starting with a mix of the three.

– not used that hematite violet genuine in a unifying glaze – it unified everything into mud.

– taken my time.  In retrospect, this was rushed, maybe because I was looking forward to the break between the two paintings.