Day Forty Seven: Moonlight by Charles Warren Eaton
Hello and welcome to day 47 of 100 days of Tonalism.
Today's study is 'Moonlight' by Charles Warren Eaton.
We have covered Charles Warren Eaton a fair amount in this series and there are quite a few more coming. Charles Warren Eaton was a very important Tonalist painter, I would rate him second only after George Inness. Please watch today's video for some biographical information about Charles in the narration.
I'm going to start detailing my painting process for you in this blog. I've written about my process on my previous blog here but that is been a while ago now, and since we have another 53 days together some of you might be interested in me delving more deeply and extensively into my process. I will try to do the blog posts in the same order as the steps I use to accomplish my landscape paintings, however, there may be some deviations from this if I think of points that I may have missed at any stage.
Today I'd like to talk about photography. I like to work with photos to help me formulate and create my landscape paintings. If you've ever read any of my blog posts about photography you'll know that I've spoken extensively in the past about the myriad dangers that using photography in your work can entail. This blog of course will be no exception to that because there are a lot of potential problems with using photos as reference for landscape paintings. I will be making that the overarching theme my process, but I will be touching on some other points as we go.
I like to go out reference hunting with my wife (note she's driving), and as I see scenes that resonate with me or that I feel will make interesting compositions, I'll get out and shoot a series of photographs of the subject in front of me. Over the years one of the major ways that I feel I have evolved as a painter, is in my ability to not only perceive interesting paintings in nature around me, but more importantly knowing what sorts of scenes and compositions will not work for me.
The sorts of things that I'm talking about that do not work for me may be a scene where you are on a hill looking down into a valley. Another good rule of thumb to avoid is tree shapes not breaking the horizon line, they definitely need to break through any mountains or hills behind them. There have been many interesting trees that I have passed on because there was nothing but a wall of hills behind them and thus no real contrast between the sky and the tree.
I've learned the hard way that it is better to start with something that is very close to what will be in the painting as opposed to the idea that I can change or manipulate the scene extensively in Photoshop and still have it work.
I will usually make a point of turning around and looking behind me while photographing on the off chance that there might be an interesting composition in that direction. The best time of day for doing photography is early in the morning or later in the day towards evening. The reason for this is that trees are lit from the side as are other formations in the landscape and this creates far more interest. Occasionally I will do some photography on rainy days and often that lighting will be quite indistinct due to the overcast sky.
On these photography scouting missions we try to take as many photos as we can, because I know that later on when I am looking for reference for a new series of paintings, I will be wanting as many different types of scenes to paint as possible. It's been a while since my wife and I have gone traveling extensively outside of New Zealand and for that reason, I would say the majority of paintings done for the last few years have been of New Zealand. Though in true Tonalist fashion I'm always most interested in generalized types of scenes.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Moonlight' by Charles Warren Eaton, this is one of the studies in the series that I painted twice, having sold the first version.
I quite enjoyed doing a study of a completely teal landscape and for the second study that I did, I painted my wood panel a nice teal green that corresponded to the middle tone of the scene. Charles' composition is very simple and yet quite effective so I kept my study simple as well.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Painted after - Moonlight by Charles Warren Eaton, Study by M Francis McCarthy - Size 5x5, Oil on wood panel |
Today's study is 'Moonlight' by Charles Warren Eaton.
We have covered Charles Warren Eaton a fair amount in this series and there are quite a few more coming. Charles Warren Eaton was a very important Tonalist painter, I would rate him second only after George Inness. Please watch today's video for some biographical information about Charles in the narration.
I'm going to start detailing my painting process for you in this blog. I've written about my process on my previous blog here but that is been a while ago now, and since we have another 53 days together some of you might be interested in me delving more deeply and extensively into my process. I will try to do the blog posts in the same order as the steps I use to accomplish my landscape paintings, however, there may be some deviations from this if I think of points that I may have missed at any stage.
Today I'd like to talk about photography. I like to work with photos to help me formulate and create my landscape paintings. If you've ever read any of my blog posts about photography you'll know that I've spoken extensively in the past about the myriad dangers that using photography in your work can entail. This blog of course will be no exception to that because there are a lot of potential problems with using photos as reference for landscape paintings. I will be making that the overarching theme my process, but I will be touching on some other points as we go.
I like to go out reference hunting with my wife (note she's driving), and as I see scenes that resonate with me or that I feel will make interesting compositions, I'll get out and shoot a series of photographs of the subject in front of me. Over the years one of the major ways that I feel I have evolved as a painter, is in my ability to not only perceive interesting paintings in nature around me, but more importantly knowing what sorts of scenes and compositions will not work for me.
The sorts of things that I'm talking about that do not work for me may be a scene where you are on a hill looking down into a valley. Another good rule of thumb to avoid is tree shapes not breaking the horizon line, they definitely need to break through any mountains or hills behind them. There have been many interesting trees that I have passed on because there was nothing but a wall of hills behind them and thus no real contrast between the sky and the tree.
I've learned the hard way that it is better to start with something that is very close to what will be in the painting as opposed to the idea that I can change or manipulate the scene extensively in Photoshop and still have it work.
I will usually make a point of turning around and looking behind me while photographing on the off chance that there might be an interesting composition in that direction. The best time of day for doing photography is early in the morning or later in the day towards evening. The reason for this is that trees are lit from the side as are other formations in the landscape and this creates far more interest. Occasionally I will do some photography on rainy days and often that lighting will be quite indistinct due to the overcast sky.
On these photography scouting missions we try to take as many photos as we can, because I know that later on when I am looking for reference for a new series of paintings, I will be wanting as many different types of scenes to paint as possible. It's been a while since my wife and I have gone traveling extensively outside of New Zealand and for that reason, I would say the majority of paintings done for the last few years have been of New Zealand. Though in true Tonalist fashion I'm always most interested in generalized types of scenes.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Moonlight' by Charles Warren Eaton, this is one of the studies in the series that I painted twice, having sold the first version.
I quite enjoyed doing a study of a completely teal landscape and for the second study that I did, I painted my wood panel a nice teal green that corresponded to the middle tone of the scene. Charles' composition is very simple and yet quite effective so I kept my study simple as well.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Original painting, Moonlight by Charles Warren Eaton |