Day Sixty Five: Altweibersommer by George Inness
Hello and welcome to day 65 of 100 days of Tonalism.
Today study is of 'Altweibersommer' by George Inness.
Another day, another Georgian Inness. We have a music track today instead of narration, the song is Today from my album, The Light in Darkness.
Continuing on with our recent assay regarding my Tonalist painting process; today I'd like to discuss my initial color stage. I could at this juncture make a distinction between my 5x7 studies and the larger paintings, the process by which I paint each is almost identical, except for time taken and brush sizes used. I work harder on the larger pieces, more painting, glazing and scumbling, not to mention just more picking.
Today's information applies equally to my studies and my larger work since my approach on the first color pass is basically the same for each.
As I stated in previous posts, I like to work on about 14 or more different subjects at a time. I refer to this as a series but only because they are being done during the same time period in sequence through all of my stages. The paintings that I do in a series really have no other relation to each other. After I have completed all my drawings and they are dry, I will start on my first color pass for each painting.
I almost always premix the eight or so major colors from the scene I am doing prior to actually painting. Many times I will do that in the morning with the intention of doing my painting in the afternoon.Once I actually sit down and start doing the painting, I also like to have the selection of brushes that I'm going to use at hand.
Finally, before I begin I set up my video camera. I began videotaping my paintings about a year and a half ago. I use a Sony Handycam on a tripod. It's not a super expensive camera but it does do reasonably high definition video. This is the way that I have captured all of the videos that are showing in this series of 100 days of Tonalism.
Just as an aside, I do a composite video that is at double speed and then for this series I've increased that speed by a factor of 10, effectively making it 12 times faster than I actually am painting. Hopefully those of you following the blog are getting something from these videos.
Perhaps it's just a habit that has carried over from my many years of drawing, but I like to start in the uppermost left-hand corner of the panel when I begin my painting. I always paint the sky first. Because the sky is behind everything else in the scene it is helpful to have a progression from back to front. This really assists in creating a sense of depth in the landscape.I will also paint the sky holes in my trees at this point. When I was learning painting many of the people that I was studying from would go back and forth from sky to tree to sky. This can give your painting sort of a flat feeling, it's best to have the sky holes in there first so that the darks of the tree can overlap them.
Moving down from the uppermost left-hand corner I will put my blues in next. The same logic applies here, the blue of the sky would be the furthest thing back any painting so best to have other colors overlap it. Then I will do the grays for the clouds. I like to contrast cool grays against warm grays in my skies and make sure that there's some interest there. Also, I will inject colors like purple or alizarin crimson into the grays to give them some extra depth and contrast. Once in a while, I will use a simple straightforward 50% gray made from ivory black and white as well. But it's important to keep the colors interesting and moving around.
When and how to add little bits of color to your grey mixture is an intuitive process, as I discussed in a previous blog post. You need to be open to an internal impetus to change things up or to modify things. As you open yourself up ideas, inspirations and even direction will be there to utilize.
I'm going to continue on tomorrow with the first color pass breakdown so stay tuned for that.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Altweibersommer' by George Inness; This is a mid period Inness and definitely shows the influence of the Barbizon school. I enjoyed painting the orange trees and the green offset in the ground plane.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Painted after - Altweibersommer by George Inness , Study by M Francis McCarthy - Size 5x7, Oil on wood panel |
Today study is of 'Altweibersommer' by George Inness.
Another day, another Georgian Inness. We have a music track today instead of narration, the song is Today from my album, The Light in Darkness.
Continuing on with our recent assay regarding my Tonalist painting process; today I'd like to discuss my initial color stage. I could at this juncture make a distinction between my 5x7 studies and the larger paintings, the process by which I paint each is almost identical, except for time taken and brush sizes used. I work harder on the larger pieces, more painting, glazing and scumbling, not to mention just more picking.
Today's information applies equally to my studies and my larger work since my approach on the first color pass is basically the same for each.
As I stated in previous posts, I like to work on about 14 or more different subjects at a time. I refer to this as a series but only because they are being done during the same time period in sequence through all of my stages. The paintings that I do in a series really have no other relation to each other. After I have completed all my drawings and they are dry, I will start on my first color pass for each painting.
I almost always premix the eight or so major colors from the scene I am doing prior to actually painting. Many times I will do that in the morning with the intention of doing my painting in the afternoon.Once I actually sit down and start doing the painting, I also like to have the selection of brushes that I'm going to use at hand.
Finally, before I begin I set up my video camera. I began videotaping my paintings about a year and a half ago. I use a Sony Handycam on a tripod. It's not a super expensive camera but it does do reasonably high definition video. This is the way that I have captured all of the videos that are showing in this series of 100 days of Tonalism.
Just as an aside, I do a composite video that is at double speed and then for this series I've increased that speed by a factor of 10, effectively making it 12 times faster than I actually am painting. Hopefully those of you following the blog are getting something from these videos.
Perhaps it's just a habit that has carried over from my many years of drawing, but I like to start in the uppermost left-hand corner of the panel when I begin my painting. I always paint the sky first. Because the sky is behind everything else in the scene it is helpful to have a progression from back to front. This really assists in creating a sense of depth in the landscape.I will also paint the sky holes in my trees at this point. When I was learning painting many of the people that I was studying from would go back and forth from sky to tree to sky. This can give your painting sort of a flat feeling, it's best to have the sky holes in there first so that the darks of the tree can overlap them.
Moving down from the uppermost left-hand corner I will put my blues in next. The same logic applies here, the blue of the sky would be the furthest thing back any painting so best to have other colors overlap it. Then I will do the grays for the clouds. I like to contrast cool grays against warm grays in my skies and make sure that there's some interest there. Also, I will inject colors like purple or alizarin crimson into the grays to give them some extra depth and contrast. Once in a while, I will use a simple straightforward 50% gray made from ivory black and white as well. But it's important to keep the colors interesting and moving around.
When and how to add little bits of color to your grey mixture is an intuitive process, as I discussed in a previous blog post. You need to be open to an internal impetus to change things up or to modify things. As you open yourself up ideas, inspirations and even direction will be there to utilize.
I'm going to continue on tomorrow with the first color pass breakdown so stay tuned for that.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Altweibersommer' by George Inness; This is a mid period Inness and definitely shows the influence of the Barbizon school. I enjoyed painting the orange trees and the green offset in the ground plane.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Original painting, Altweibersommer by George Inness |