General Store - stage 3

I decided this morning to go with working within a more limited range of colour and decided to go with the general dusty pink look to the landscape keeping to a sort of monochrome. I finished the sky first and then worked on the landscape using pretty much the same colour mixes with the addition of Brilliant Pink and a little Bright Green Lake for foliage etc.

General Store - stage 2

So here is the first colour pass on the sky and distant hills after deciding this morning over coffee to base it around violet varying it from the blue side to the red side with it's complementary yellow used in the clouds. The sky was painted with mixes of Kings Blue Light, Permanent Orange, Ultramarine Violet, Pale Violet, Zinc White, Warm White, Lemon Yellow and Lead Tin Yellow Lemon - all Michael Harding paints.
I then made up a mix of Burnt Sienna, Winsor Violet and Permanent Orange thinned with Liquin and rubbed in a transparent glaze over the rest of the landscape with a darker mix painted into some of the shadow areas with a brush afterwards.
I'm in a slight quandry now as I quite like the monochrome look of it all against the sky so I have to decide tomorrow morning which way to go; either stick with the original intention of varied rich colours in the shadow landscape or to develop this monochrome version with quite a subtle range of colour instead...

General Store - stage 1

It's now time to get back to some "The Big Sky" paintings again as I escape the Stygian gloom of "Vampires Of Venice". Actually this one is a bit of cross-pollination between the recent monochromes I have been painting and the American landscapes where I had the land in virtual monochrome set against a colour sky. "General Store" will have the landscape in shadow like previous ones but both the land and the sky will be painted in full colour using opaque paints. The location is in the Death Valley area of California and I like the idea of a General Store seemingly in the middle of nowhere... which it is.
This stage was painted with a small bristle brush and a rag using a mix of Burnt Sienna and Winsor Violet (Dioxazine) thinned with Liquin. I think I am going to base it around a Violet/Yellow complementary but I might change my mind over tomorrow morning's coffee when I assess it with fresh eyes

The Vampire of Rio de la Veste

I think I'll take a rest now from these monochromes so this will be the last "Vampires of Venice" painting for a while as I get back to some more "The Big Sky" pictures. 
I based this one on a different colour monochrome, a mix of Indanthrene Blue, Ultramarine Violet and Permanent Orange (to temper the saturation) thinned with Liquin and applied with a rag and brush in a series of glazes. I have learnt to paint the whole picture from one large pile of mixed paint as it is very difficult if you run out to get the exact same mix of colours again and any area using a different paint mix shows up straight away. 
So far I have been choosing to set the pictures in the quiet back streets of Venice and not the more famous and obvious locations that shout out "Venice!" For instance Rio de la Veste is in the famous San Marco Sestiere of Venice where St Mark's Square etc is located which is constantly thronged with thousands of tourists (at least in the day time) but once you leave that area it all becomes somewhat quiet and mysterious. Indeed this is the main attraction of Venice for me, walking around at night in the dimly lit back streets, beautiful but mysterious too, no wonder films like "Don't Look Now" were set here.
Oil on linen 16" x 12".

The Vampire of Rio de la Veste - stage 1

This will be the last Vampires of Venice painting for a while as I need to get back to my The Big Sky series of American landscapes. I thought that I would try a different monochrome colour this time ; it's a mix of Indanthrene Blue, Ultramarine Violet and Permanent Orange thinned with Liquin and applied with a rag and brush. I'm still looking for that old movie still look with the Vampire a bit closer in the doorway at right. Hopefully when/if I come back to this series I will have a slightly different way of doing them as I like to move on and not repeat myself...
Rio de la Veste is in the San Marco Sestiere of Venice but a lot quieter here than the area near St Mark's Square etc.
Oil on linen 16" x 12".

The Vampire of Ponte Storto

Following on from "Santa Croce" where the figure on the bridge would have been too small to work with I decided to try it coming closer in to another bridge (named Ponte Storto) this time. I have placed the figure centrally and at the apex of the bridge but everything else is asymmetrical to balance this out - even though the Vampire is small he is given more prominence by where he's positioned.
Although the bridge of Ponte Storto is real I have moved things around and changed it quite a lot for compositional reasons. I want these Vampires to be only half materialised as though they come from another world, this one has just noticed you.... run for it!
All these paintings in the Vampires Of Venice series are influenced by black and white photography from the 1930s and the German Expressionist films like Nosferatu although I am trying to be a bit subtle about it as well. I might indeed try later on a scene more like Nosferatu with the buildings etc at crazy angles... or is that being a bit obvious?
The whole picture was painted using a single mix of Burnt Sienna and Winsor Violet thinned with Liquin and applied in a series of transparent glazes, the transparent paint gives it a quality that I don't think you can get by using opaque paint as the white of the canvas shows through it all I guess giving it a quality nearer to a film still which is kind of appropriate.
Oil on linen 20" x 16".
There is a short step-by-step progress through this painting in previous posts on this blog.

The Vampire of Ponte Storto - stage 2

Basically just adding more layers of the Burnt Sienna/Winsor Violet mix with a rag and brush. I reckon it's time for the Vampire to go in tomorrow...
That vertical line of light was going to be a distant light on background buildings but I might keep it as something weird going on in the distance - I'll have another look at it tomorrow morning to decide.