Working from drawings and photographs

The snow during this winter and Assignment 4 period created both an opportunity to find some dramatic views and restricted on site painting. The example I have chosen to use here would have been difficult to produce in situ due to the cold and snow storms at the time. A popular walk from Flamstead towards the next village of Markyate goes across some open fields climbing up an incline at the boundary of two fields passed a lone oak tree.

As I walked across this field one morning the sky darkened ahead of a snow fall creating a wonderful contrast between the darkening sky and snow covered fields. The snow was broken by foot marks, paw prints, crops and vegetation. I was able to make some quick sketches on site supplemented by some digital photographs.

 

I chose one of the photos I had taken in landscape orientation. From this I prepared a colour study initially using ultramarine, yellow ochre and titanium white but felt the blue was too warm/red. I, therefore, decided to change the ultramarine for phthalo blue (phthalocyanine) when I worked on the actual painting.

To aid enlarging and transferring the photo image to an acrylic paper support, I squared up a print of the selected photo which I had fixed into my sketchbook.

The chosen composition approximately complied with the rule of thirds. The horizon was set at about one third of the way down from the top of the support. Blocking out the sky and snow covered fields quickly established the visual contrast I had experienced as the snow storm approached.

Keeping to a very limited palette of colours and using the scaling grid I added the tree and scrub line directly to the support with brush strokes. I added a light blue/white wash to the fields to indicate areas of shadow. I then built up detail adding crop rows and tonal detail to the scrub line. I created an impression of the snow covered branches and added dark marks where foot prints etc had been formed in the snow. Both the crop lines and foot marks helped to define perspective and lead the viewer's eye into the picture.

In producing my impression of the photographic image, I modified the colours and strengthened the contrast between sky and the fields to recreate the feeling of drama I had experienced in situ. My painting shows less detail and emphasis on the marks in the snow in the foreground than the photo but has a greater emotional impact.