Riverview
6/24/05 Update:
Actually, this painting is still not completed. Rita has been
working on it most of the day. And if the truth be known, this
is her second attempt. Normally, if a piece is a flop, then
she will not redo the same piece. She's got too many things that
need painting to slow down and paint the same one over. But this
one was different. Something about it drew her back to do it
again. Maybe, as it unfolds, you will see what drew her back too!
These images are related to Change of Season (#3) since they were
images taken by the same friend on the same trip to Colorado. Thank
you, Christine!! (Rita does appreciate reference photos!) Since
it was taken in the fall, some of the leaves are still there.
Original Reference Photos:
What makes this somewhat unusual, is that Rita will combine elements
from the two photos into one image. So this will really become a
composite image of the photos and her imagination.
7/2/05 Update:
Here's the original pencil sketch:
And here's the actual sketch on the watercolor paper:
If you compare the original sketch with the two photo's above, then
you can see how Rita combined and enhanced the image to reflect what
she saw in her mind's eye. Please note, there are no telephone poles
in any of her pieces. Obviously, she doesn't focus on those when she
views a scene!!
And if you compare the original pencil sketch to what's on the watercolor
paper, then you can see that she made some subtle changes between the
first and second sketches. You can also see in the second sketch, that
Rita has applied the mask to the paper. Again, this protects the paper
from absorbing color in those areas. Later, Rita will rub the mask off
and paint those areas in. The mask has a slightly yellow appearance, i.e.
the houses and rocks are masked.
Also, on the second sketch in particular, I have enhanced the photo to
make it easier to see the sketch. Rita will pencil this in so lightly,
that it makes it hard to see the lines in the photo. So, next week,
be sure to look and you'll see that the lines are not that dark.
In the next update, you'll see Rita deviate from her standard practice!
Be sure to come back and check out. Till then...
7/15/05 Update:
So what did Rita do to deviate from her standard practice? For those
who have read previous how-to sections, should be able to recognize
that Rita normally paints from the back (most distant) to the front.
However, in this piece she started with the trees in the middle! Now
why would she do that? She reminded me that it is an artist's perogative
to break the rules. She then explained that she wanted to let the trees
flow where the water/paint/paper would take them. And then come back and
fill in the sky/distant mountains.
She applied a light yellow wash over the area of the trees. And then came
back with several colors and begin working the shape of the trees. Please
note that even here, she applied the colors in layers. She will come back
and add additional color and detail.
7/23/05 Update:
In this pic, you can see that Rita has filled in a rather dramatic sky.
Before she did that, Rita applied a mask to the yellow trees to protect
that color while she was painting the sky. You can see the greenish cast
that the tops of the trees have, particularly on the left side. Once the
mask is removed, the bright yellow colors of the trees will return. Rita
did indicate that she was attempting to create the look of a storm forming
over the horizon. The sun will still be shining in the foreground. I
think she accomplished her goal.
7/29/05 Update:
Before Rita began painting, she applied more mask to the rocks along
the shore and also over any leaves/shrubs that are close to the water.
Rita has a spray bottle that she uses to pre-wet the paper. So if you
can visualize her spraying water, medium mist over the paper that will
soon be the river. Then she tilted her board from the back so that any
water at the back of the river (in the distance) would drain towards
the front. Rita used a big round watercolor brush, one that will hold
lots of water and paint. She wets the brush and dabbles her paint and
begins at the back to apply the paint. We now have blue water dripping
from the back towards the front. With the paper already wet, the blue
paint quickly flows throughout the pre-wetted area of the river. She
will dabble more paint towards the river banks to reflect the darker
shadows of rocks along the shoreline. She'll continue to apply paint
from the back towards the front cleaning up the drips as she goes.
For the most part, the texture you see in the river itself, is caused
by the interaction of the paint and the wet paper. However, if she
doesn't see enough texture, she will dab more paint in a given area
until she is satisfied with the look.
If you look carefully along the shoreline, you can see that some of the
yellow of the trees has been added to the water to give a light
reflection.
All of this goes fairly quickly, say 10 minutes for the first pass.
The follow-up work to darken the shoreline and add texture takes more
time, depending on what she sees and how well the paper/paint interact.
8/13/05 Update:
First, Rita applied a mask to the yellow trees around the area where
mountains will be painted in. She splattered the mask on to protect
the whites and yellows of the trees, but permitted some of the
mountain colors to come through the parts of the trees.
She then used blue and purple to paint in the mountains themselves.
Where there were shadows, she painted it in darker. And then she used
yellow and a coppery red to paint in where the light would be hitting
the mountain sides. If you compare these back to the original photos,
you will see no comparision to the original mountains. So these were
entirely composed by Rita's brush.
Once Rita was satisfied, she removed the mask that she had applied to
the trees.
8/21/05 Update:
Two pics this week! The first shows how Rita added so bare trees to
the right bank. Then Rita removed all of the mask on the remaining
trees, the buildings and the riverbanks. Next week, she'll be
painting in the rocks on the riverbank.
8/28/05 Update:
If you compare this image with last week's, you'll notice that Rita
has gone in and painted the shoreline rocks with varying intensities
to get the surface texture of the rocks. Colors are more intense in
the foreground and fade as you move further downstream in the image.
For the rocks, the colors are primarily shades of brown, but she has
mixed in some red, blue and yellows into them as well. Also, she has
added some additional color to water near the shoreline to help reflect
those colors.
9/02/05 Final Update:
Well, hopefully you're ready for the final read-out on Riverview.
Last week, All Rita needed to do was complete the buildings and then
do some fine tuning. Let's review what has been done:
- First Rita added a few tree details to the left side. Mostly branches
and trunks and more branches.
- Next Rita added color the roofs of the various houses along the shore.
Note the small curved bridge over the river just to the right of the
red house. Hopefully, your eye went there on it's own because that
is the focal point of the piece. Each artist works to control where
your eye moves through the piece. As you gaze at a piece, the focal
point is where your eye should come to rest. It may wander again, but
it should move back to the focal point!
- Now comes the fine tuning. Rita left the piece alone for a couple of
weeks. Well, actually, she would move it from room to room through the
house/studio. In some ways, this is the time she tries to get
emotionally unattached to the piece. In that way, she can be more
objective about what needs to be done in the fine tuning. As you look
at the pic, what do you see?
- Rita wanted a little more contrast in the trees. So she added
some red to the leaves. It created a little more texture and
contrast. So yes, the photo is accurate and the colors are
more vibrant!
- Next, Rita wanted to add a little more blue to the river
and darkened that down to reflect the impending storm moving
down from the mountains.
- Rita also added a little more color to the rocks, especially
in the foreground.
And finally, Rita looked at the overall composition and decided
that the foreground was distracting to the overall image. So
she took a pair of scissors and 'cropped' the image. Unlike
Photoshop, there's no back-up key to undue the crop!. As I
looked at the new crop, I realized that she was right again.
I'm always amazed at what her eye 'sees'!
Oops, there's always one more change. The piece is not done until the
artist signs the piece! Rita usually signs in the lower right hand side
of the piece, as she did again here.
Well we hope you enjoyed following Rita through the creative process of
putting paint to paper!