under painting as an original composition

I had to find a pre 19th century painting and turn it into my own painting by taking a portion of that painting, the under painting, and make it look like it is its own composition. I always get grand ideas about painting landscapes. I always think I can do it and it will be fun and awesome and all these things and then I start in on this painting and freak out a little when things don't look how I think they will. However, this one pleasantly surprised me.

This is just the under painting of my own composition. The sky is my favorite part.

Then I started adding in the textures of the leaves on the trees.

The stumps came next. It was difficult to make them look like they were part of the painting. They looked a little disconnected from the painting until I went back over them with more green to tuck the tops underneath the foliage.

I added a bunch more detail into the stumps and I re-did the tree on the right side of the painting.

After that I moved on to the cows and the reflection on the pond. The cows I am not happy with. I think they look kind of stubby legged, but oh well.

The red leaves on the top right corner had me super nervous. I was worried that they would take over the painting or not match the rest of the composition, but I was really happy with the way they turned out.

After I brought the whole painting up to the same level, the green leaves needed to be reworked, so I added some more high lights above a couple different tree trunks and added some more texture.

After our final critique it was decided that I needed to bring some red and orange into the other trees to make it look more like the leaves are turning colors and then that red in the top corner won't look so out of place. Also, I'm gonna darken the branches in the tops of the trees to make them stick out less like sore thumbs and look more like they belong in the tree tops.

clouds and cows

Let's be honest. I really don't know how to write about watercolors without gushing about how awesome I think they are every ten seconds. I think the reason I love them so much is because I abhor oil painting. I really should work on that, oil painting isn't so bad...and can be really useful in the life of an artist. Plus, my final painting from last semester? Basically awesome.

I can be a lot more impressionistic with watercolors. It doesn't have to be exactly the way it appears before me in real life. And if I don't want to paint that telephone pole in the middle of the field, I don't have to. If I like those clouds over there, but that tree over here? No big deal! Let's merge 'em! It's like real life photoshop. It's my interpretation of what a place is - not the place how it stands exactly in real life. And that, ladies and gentlemen, makes me feel like an artist instead of like I'm just pretending to be one.

We spend a lot of time outside painting landscapes and clouds. Clouds are some of my favorites, but also very difficult. There's a lot of colors mashed in there instead of just white. And since it's been kinda stormy here lately, the clouds have been pretty intense.

However, today the sky was pretty much a blanket of grey. Not really that interesting to paint. And plus, right now, it's pouring. So I painted from a picture. The rule was that if we painted from a photograph it had to be a photo that we took. And well, you guys know me. I take loads of pictures. And I love landscapes with interesting clouds. So I had a lot to choose from.

I ended up painting a photo that I submitted to the county fair. It's a pretty intense sky, and I like the way this one turned out. I don't ever want to go back to oils again, but I don't think that's possible.