Silverbark at Sundown ~ complete (acrylic and collage on paper)

I'm going to call this done now. It doesn't look like I've done much since my last post but I spent a lot of time just looking at the painting and deciding how I wanted to create the leaves. I finally settled on a paste paper that I copper leafed on one side, painted on the other. I used tracing paper so the copper leaf would show through and tone the yellow. This produced a fairly accurate representation of birch leaves in Fall. Then the issue was where to place the leaves and how many wouldn't be too many. Did they distract or benefit the painting? Branches were never where I needed them and I knew I should've added the leaf placement to the original drawing. Dang! Ah well, a Chinese white pencil and a violet Prismacolor Verithin solved the problem. Cutting those teeny, tiny leaves was a chore, as was using tweezers to handle them. I think it was worth the effort and time, though. I'm pretty happy with it. :) The final size is approx. 6 1/2" x 29".

Work in progress

Silverbark at Sundown ~ WIP 2

Many glazes later...many, many glazes later, I finally started work on the markings on the birch trunks. I love the distinctive 'eyes' they display and am surprised so few artists that paint birch trees fail to include them in their paintings. The trunks will receive more washes of color...red violets, yellow and cerulean blue. I plan to use cut paper collage to add the leaves when the paint work is complete. Birch leaves turn yellow in Fall so I need to make my own yellow paste papers to order. Then plenty of cutting and pasting is in my future.

Silverbark at Sundown ~ sketch and wip 1

This is the beginning of my latest project. It's another birch painting done with acrylic on 140# Fabriano HP w/c paper. I have a few stands of Silverbark birch across the drive from my home so I have plenty of reference material right outside my front windows. I plan to use the palette from my color study (see previous post). This painting will be much larger, approx. 6 1/2" x 29". An odd size but I've always wanted to do a long and very narrow format because I love the look. I've been waiting for a sunny day to forge ahead and that day has arrived. It's been so terribly gloomy lately that I've left lights on all day long. Not ideal conditions to create subtle color variations.

Side note: After painting 'The Rusty Gate Post' I contacted the photographer responsible for my reference image. I wanted to know more about this gate and he gave me enough information to locate the gate on Google Map. It resides outside a charming little B & B in the UK. Here's the Coach House B &B (link) on A413 Brackley Road, Silverstone, United Kingdom. Seems I guessed the wrong finial. Ah, well....

Autumn Scene ~ color study (acrylic)

Here is my painted color study, just completed. It's small, roughly 5" x 13". I decided to use tube acrylic because acrylics can be more forgiving than watercolor and I wanted the freedom to change things up should I want to switch colors. I just may paint the final piece using acrylics!

I began by using the acrylic paint like watercolor and gave the entire paper surface a Yellow Cad. Light wash, including the birch trunks. I switched to Cad. Red Light, which is actually orange, and added a light wash while the yellow was still wet. I've never been happy with any tube orange but decided not to sweat the small stuff just yet. I knew I could adjust things later. I didn't bother masking the lower leaves for this study either. I just wanted to see how my chosen colors worked together. Once the yellow and orange were dry I mixed Deep Violet and UB to create various degrees of red and blue violet and laid in my darker values. Then it was all a matter of tweaking. At one point I was afraid I had gone too dark on the birch trunks but as I kept going it all began to work. Birch bark is so white it reflects color well, even in shadow...especially in shadow...which provided an excellent opportunity to bring some excitement to the trunks. I completed the leaves using mostly yellow and violet but hit a snag when I added Cerulean blue, my 'pop' color. Full strength it looked awful but mixed with a little white to soften it, it worked very well. I added the pale Cerulean to the background, some of the leaves and both tree trunks. To complete the study I toned the orange areas with a light wash of deep violet, very diluted. 

Birch Landscape~ Complete!

SOLD

Well, almost. I need to tweak the markings on the birch trees a little but I'm close to calling this one done. As usual, the colors are a little off. I tried my best with my photo editor but I lost some lavenders and pale yellow in the stream and some soft grey/blues in the background. Also, the actual painting looks a bit softer overall. I really enjoyed using the gesso as a painting medium. It gave the effect of oils where I needed it.

More Birch Trees!

Same study, more tweaking. I darkened the foreground, shadows and some of the sky. Because of the light today my sky looks lavendar and the white of the birch bark is lost.

This is the best photo I could get of my latest birch study but it should convey an idea of the sunrise effect. I will most likely play with this some more and bring in some deeper shadows on the snow in the foreground. If it doesn't work out it's just a study. I used to hate doing studies and thought they were a waste of time but now I'm enjoying them, especially when I'm so far out of my comfort zone. They waste less paper, less time and they provide a wealth of much needed information.

I emailed my customer the last two color sketches/studies and she decided on the second sketch. She said it looked the most like the area where she lives and I have to agree. She didn't care for all the orange and red in the first study but did say she was open to bringing in a little more color to the one she did choose and suggested a sunset landscape. I thought early sunrise would work much better. I love the look of all those amazing pastel colors that bathe the landscape just before the sun appears on the horizan. At that time of day there's usually a bit of mist hanging over the lake and the waters are usually calm and reflective.

Berries & Birch~ Round 2 Completed!

I've included a few closeups to showcase the texture. You should be able to see where I added some white colored pencil to highlight the ridges. Love the icy feel the pencil lends.

This is the completed painting. I managed to tweak the original image so it looks closer to the real thing.

I've finished the tree trunks and the background and I'm ready to remove the mask so I can paint the berries.

It's done(!)although now that I see it on screen a few places need a little cleanup. I had lots of fun working with the tissue paper/gesso texture. I think I came as close as possible to matching the results I got in Elements using the watercolor filter. I didn't go quite as dark for fear of it looking dreary. For my palette I used Payne's Gray, indanthrene blue, neutral tint and a little burnt sienna on the bark and DS Pyrrol red, perm. yellow and more burnt sienna for the berries. To bring out the texture I used various colored pencils lightly rubbed across the ridges in certain areas which gave me yet another idea.

I've been admiring Sandy Maudlin's watercolor batiks on rice paper and wondered if it might be possible to create a reverse batik technique, if you will, using the tissue paper/gesso texture. Instead of applying ink into cracks in hardened wax, why not highlight the ridges in the gesso with a dark color producing roughly the same effect? I may have to explore this further.