I’ve begun “Riverbend” again. This time, as I intended, I’m doing this gouache.
Drawing
I drew out my composition again. I’ve made some slight changes, but I’ve kept the overall look that I had in the first attempt.
Painting
I began with the sky. I put in a blue made of Phthalo Blue and Green, divided into bands of different values. When the gouache paint dried on me, I’d rewet the areas I wanted to blend and blended them together with a gentle touch and an angled shader.
For the trees and foliage, i mixed various greens in various hues and values for visual variety. As of now, everything is going to be laid in flat, the only divisions being in light and shadow. Seeing as these greens are in the distance, I’m trying to keep to atmospheric perspective, making them lighter than the greens will be in the foreground.
Afterthoughts
Well, it’s going to take time. I’m resisting the feelings that all artists seem to get at the beginning of a painting – the fear that you’re messing up, the fear of failing.
I’m getting this feeling because of how bland the flat painting looks right now, but this is just part of the process. I intend to put the details on later in the painting. For now, I just need to trust the process.
I’m working from the imagination, but I am also working from references to aid myself. I may show them at the end.