Naomi - stage 3

 The time has now come as to how the hair is going to fade into colour, something that I wasn't sure when I had the idea, but the whole point of these trial paintings is seeing what I come up with so I'm just winging it. I stopped here as I quite like the transparent paint in the hair and need to look at it again tomorrow morning over breakfast coffee and see where I want to take it.

Tideline

 The general direction these trial painting are heading in is areas fading into colour, originally envisaged as fading to a side like this one where the colour fade is at the top. I have since realised that this is quite limiting and will only work with a certain composition (for which I have a couple of things to try out with a landscape... probably coming up after "Naomi" is finished). I don't think it particularly works on this, the idea to base it around a blue/green - red/orange complementary was all very well but....  The good thing is that I've only spent a few days on this so I can move on without wasting much time on it.

Oil on mdf 12" x 12". 

The colours I used are mentioned in a previous post on this blog.

Naomi - stage 2

 Still waiting for "Tideline" to dry so getting on with "Naomi". I gave the background another glaze of Alizarin Crimson to deepen the colour and the started work on the face and hair. The plan is cold highlights and warm shadows but that is all relative when working with such a hot palette so I've stopped here and will have a look at it over tomorrow morning's breakfast coffee and see where I need to go. 

Colours used were: Alizarin Crimson, Burnt Sienna, Permanent Orange, Manganese Violet, Naples Yellow, Cadmium Yellow Light, Lead Tin Yellow Lemon, Zinc White and Warm White.

Naomi - stage 1

 While "Tideline" is drying I have got on with another trial painting a rare figurative one of the lovely Naomi Wood. I love red in paintings particularly portraits/figurative pictures but whenever I have tried to use it I have always struggled and ended up with a disappointing painting. Here I go again let's see how this one turns out, the plan is the darkest part of the picture will be the eye with Naomi's red/orange hair fading into red on the right side.I intend to have warm shadows that merge a bit with the background and colder very pale violets for the highlights....

This is the first colour pass over the underpainting which as always was a mix of Burnt Sienna and Winsor Violet, the initial texture achieved with a palette knife. I have then painted a transparent glaze of Alizarin Crimson over the background texture.

Oil on mdf 12" x 12".

Tideline - stage 1

 

Actually I seem to have missed getting a photo of the tonal underpainting so the first post is this one where I have painted in the sand and pebbles. The idea is that a green/blue is going to come in from the top and gradually emerge out of the top fade into water lapping against the beach, all based around a blue/green-orange/red colour complementary. The colour in the foreground is quite saturated so I will need to desaturate the green/blue otherwise it will be too colourful.

Colours used so far: Burnt Sienna, Winsor Violet, Ultramarine Violet, Permanent Orange, Naples Yellow, Lemon Yellow, Cadmium Yellow Light, Yellow Lake Deep and Warm White.

Oil on mdf 12" x 12".

Haven

 

Another painting of my favourite location, Cuckmere Haven in East Sussex in which I try fading a side of the painting into colour, in this case the bottom, although in the end I decided to keep a bit of definition to the riverbanks. It was originally conceived to be dark at the bottom but I changed my mind and had it lighter in the foreground than the background.

The original inspiration for this came from one of my first oil paintings back in 2004 called "Dawn Rain Mae Hong Song" in which the painting fades down to a colour at the bottom, something I wasn't planning but it just seemed right to leave it like that at the time. I have always liked that look but had no real idea as to how to use it until some of these recent trial paintings have been veering this way so I thought that I would try and develop this idea and see if anything comes out of it.

Oil on mdf 12" x 12". 

There is a short step-by-step progress through this painting in previous posts on this blog.

Dawn Rain Mae Hong Song

 

Haven - stage 2

 I was going to have a single colour across the bottom of the picture but decided to keep the shape of the riverbanks and have the edges blurry and the values of the two colours very similar. I will look at it tomorrow morning and see what tweaks I need to make before it is finished. The next one I'm planning is quite different...