#20 John Enneking 'Fall at Dusk' - 25 Days of Tonalism
Hello, and welcome to Tonalist painting with M Francis McCarthy.
Today's painting is a study after John Enneking - 'Fall at Dusk.'
Our video features the progression of this painting from its early underpainting stages on up through the final finishing brushwork. Also featured is my usual rambling narration, so please check it out.
Starting a painting is always the hardest part. I've devised a number of strategies to support this process so that I have a procedure in place before I begin a painting.
My planning process really begins with coming across a scene in nature that I think would make an interesting painting motif. There have been times in the past where I would do some on spot Plein air painting, but these days I prefer to use a camera to capture any scene that I think worthy.
Typically, I will photograph the scene from many different angles and perspectives. I always make sure to do this because you never know until you get a photo home and look at it on the computer whether it will adequately have recorded the scene you came across. I try to shoot the scene both from a lower worm's eye perspective and sometimes higher, standing on my toes. I also have a very nice camera with a really good zoom lens so that I can capture the scene from a variety of focal points.
I then prepare my scene in Photoshop making any appropriate changes. The focus at this step is always to do things to support my painting. There are times when my photo edits might seem garish or over the top, but their purpose is to help inspire a painting and not function as 'photographs'.
Another thing I do is paint a small study prior to doing my larger painting. I use the same basic steps to paint my study as I do the larger work, but it goes much quicker because it doesn't take very long to paint a 5x7 or 5x5. Lately, I've been working without the study step with my current pass of paintings that I'm doing and that's working out well.
I discussed board preparation in the recent past. However, this might be a good place to touch again on the topic of having a nicely prepared surface for your painting. I like to use earth tones as my ground color, either Burnt Sienna or Burnt Umber. Also, it's good to have some sort of texturing established on the board, whether it's gesso or something else. I like to have a certain amount of the wood grain of the board coming through, but not too much. Ultimately, you want to have the surface that is inviting you to paint.
When I do start my actual painting I do a drawing with a brush. This usually takes about 20 to 30 minutes and helps me get my bearings and have my composition established, as well as some of my darkest values in place.
These days working on the Burnt Umber I have been using Black Ivory, but in the past working over Burnt Sienna grounds, I would often do my drawings with Burnt Sienna and Black together. Either way, I think it's good to have a framework established, just like you would if you were putting up a building. By the way, even on my studies, I will do a drawing prior to going in with color.
Right before my first color pass, I will premix on my pallet, anywhere from 8 to 14 of the most predominant colors in my painting. This is just another way of getting my head wrapped around the motif and making it easier to paint.
It's only after all of these preparatory steps that I actually begin putting color down on my paintings. You can see by the time I'm ready to start, I've already done a lot of work that is supporting my painting process.
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about my study painted after John Enneking- 'Fall at Dusk'; John Enneking is an awesome artist and this was one of the Tonalist studies I was most excited to do in this current bunch of studies. I love his muted color sense and I think I did a good job of representing the colors in his painting.
The draftsmanship is maybe a little bit off but still gets the idea across. It's not really necessary to duplicate every tree branch or exact proportion of his painting to have a good study anyway.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Painted after - 'Fall at Dusk' by John Enneking, Study by M Francis McCarthy - Size 5x5, Oil on wood panel |
Our video features the progression of this painting from its early underpainting stages on up through the final finishing brushwork. Also featured is my usual rambling narration, so please check it out.
Starting a painting is always the hardest part. I've devised a number of strategies to support this process so that I have a procedure in place before I begin a painting.
My planning process really begins with coming across a scene in nature that I think would make an interesting painting motif. There have been times in the past where I would do some on spot Plein air painting, but these days I prefer to use a camera to capture any scene that I think worthy.
Typically, I will photograph the scene from many different angles and perspectives. I always make sure to do this because you never know until you get a photo home and look at it on the computer whether it will adequately have recorded the scene you came across. I try to shoot the scene both from a lower worm's eye perspective and sometimes higher, standing on my toes. I also have a very nice camera with a really good zoom lens so that I can capture the scene from a variety of focal points.
I then prepare my scene in Photoshop making any appropriate changes. The focus at this step is always to do things to support my painting. There are times when my photo edits might seem garish or over the top, but their purpose is to help inspire a painting and not function as 'photographs'.
Another thing I do is paint a small study prior to doing my larger painting. I use the same basic steps to paint my study as I do the larger work, but it goes much quicker because it doesn't take very long to paint a 5x7 or 5x5. Lately, I've been working without the study step with my current pass of paintings that I'm doing and that's working out well.
I discussed board preparation in the recent past. However, this might be a good place to touch again on the topic of having a nicely prepared surface for your painting. I like to use earth tones as my ground color, either Burnt Sienna or Burnt Umber. Also, it's good to have some sort of texturing established on the board, whether it's gesso or something else. I like to have a certain amount of the wood grain of the board coming through, but not too much. Ultimately, you want to have the surface that is inviting you to paint.
When I do start my actual painting I do a drawing with a brush. This usually takes about 20 to 30 minutes and helps me get my bearings and have my composition established, as well as some of my darkest values in place.
These days working on the Burnt Umber I have been using Black Ivory, but in the past working over Burnt Sienna grounds, I would often do my drawings with Burnt Sienna and Black together. Either way, I think it's good to have a framework established, just like you would if you were putting up a building. By the way, even on my studies, I will do a drawing prior to going in with color.
Right before my first color pass, I will premix on my pallet, anywhere from 8 to 14 of the most predominant colors in my painting. This is just another way of getting my head wrapped around the motif and making it easier to paint.
It's only after all of these preparatory steps that I actually begin putting color down on my paintings. You can see by the time I'm ready to start, I've already done a lot of work that is supporting my painting process.
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about my study painted after John Enneking- 'Fall at Dusk'; John Enneking is an awesome artist and this was one of the Tonalist studies I was most excited to do in this current bunch of studies. I love his muted color sense and I think I did a good job of representing the colors in his painting.
The draftsmanship is maybe a little bit off but still gets the idea across. It's not really necessary to duplicate every tree branch or exact proportion of his painting to have a good study anyway.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Original Painting, John Enneking 'Fall at Dusk' |
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| Study painted after - 'Fall at Dusk' by John Enneking (Detail) |
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| Study painted after - 'Fall at Dusk' by John Enneking (Detail 2) |