Castle of Lost Souls

 After "Sea of Light" I return to the shadows of beautiful melancholia with "Castle of Lost Souls" another marine-based painting during this phase of getting better at painting ocean waves etc in readiness for my next gallery painting. I have only just noticed how much my work is influenced by Victorian era painting particularly the shadowy landscapes of some of the North European painters such as Keller, Baade, Knaub etc etc. ... and I think I will go deeper into this look so the next painting will be very shadowy and dramatic and has replaced the gallery piece as next in line to be painted. I don't see anybody utilising this look despite these artists being influential on many fellow Imaginative Realism/Fantasy artists many of whom I have met over the years.

This one was tricky to work out the colours in the subdued yellowy light as I didn't want it too monochrome but still in a fairly narrow colour range so it is based on a desaturated yellow/blue colour axis (with violets of course for the Complementary). I was going to have the waves crashing on the shore but decided to give it a more subdued atmosphere by the water gently lapping on the beach instead which I think gives it a better feel and is also less obvious.

Oil on linen 22" x 16"

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

Castle of Lost Souls - stage 6

 Knocked back the towers on the castle and then made a start on the foreground. Feeling my way along as I work out what colours to use, I think I have done enough as a base to work on in a couple of days time to finish.

Castle Of Lost Souls - stage 5

 Finished the castle and rocks, just need to knock the central towers area back and then I will start on the foreground - I will paint the shipwreck last.

It's becoming obvious to me that my main influence at least in my Fantasy/Imaginative Realism work is paintings from the later Victorian era and Golden Age American Illustration.  I can see so many artists work from that period from Ferdinand Keller, Scandinavian Landscape painters, Symbolism, Tonalism and then onto people like Maxfield Parrish....

Castle Of Lost Souls - stage 4

 The sky is mostly finished but am waiting of finishing the castle and rocks first for final adjustments. It has been tricky working out the colour transition as the castle and rocks go from left to right and meet the sky. Not a good photo actually as it all looks a bit rough here..

New colours used: Naples Yellow and Manganese Violet.

Castle of Lost Souls - stage 3

 I have roughed in some colour over the whole painting using a desaturated blue/green on the castle and cliffs. The sky is looking warmer than I intended at the moment so will have a look at it over tomorrow morning's breakfast coffee and make decisions about the sky then.

Colours used so far: Dioxazine Purple, Phthalocyanine Blue, Phthalocyanine green, Burnt Sienna, Permanent Orange, Yellow Lake Deep, Yellow Ochre Deep and Warm Light Yellow.

Castle Of Lost Souls - stage 2

 Finished off the tonal underpainting ready for the desaturated blue wash tomorrow. I used the basic structure for the castle that I drew up yesterday and let the brush suggest shapes within it to elaborate the buildings and the cliffs and rocks that it sits on.

Castle Of Lost Souls - stage 1

 Continuing with my marine theme this one will be quite different to "Sea Of Light" in that I return to things melancholy and beautiful. Hopefully a very moody piece based on a desaturated blue and orange complementary, it has a shipwrecked sailing ship at the base of cliffs leading up to a melancholy fortress... all ye abandon hope here... 

As with all these marine paintings they are partly an exercise in learning how to paint ocean water better, when happy with the results from what I have learnt this will inform the next gallery paintings in my "Point Of Light " series.

This is the preliminary pass on the tonal underpainting which I will finish tomorrow before a desaturated blue wash goes over it. As usual I have used a mix of Burnt Sienna and Dioxazine Purple thinned with Liquin and applied with a rag and brush.

Oil on linen 22" x 16".

Sea Of Light

 The companion painting to the previous "Sea Of Shadows" is another one that is focused on me getting better at painting water in particular ocean water. I wanted to flood this one with light to reflect the title and give it an optimistic feel as opposed to my usual beautiful melancholia. The light burst was thrown into the mix as I was doing the tonal underpainting and is a theme that I will continue to develop as I would like to use it in my gallery work series "Point Of Light"... not quite sure how yet and it might necessitate a change of title for the series... It was interesting working out how to paint the clouds as they needed to be dramatic but not dark and threatening and possibly broke some new ground with this.... it seems I learn something in every painting.

Oil on linen 22" x 16".

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

Sea Of Light - stage 7

 Having to take it quite carefully now as I approach the boat and the light burst. I have kind of finished the water now and have roughed in the boat. I have changed my mind as to how I am going to paint the boat but as usual I will make final decisions over tomorrow's breakfast coffee.

Sea Of Light - stage 6

 

Part of the reason for this and the previous couple of paintings was to get my painting of water up to scratch... well one day I'll get there. I struggled with this today but maybe I have got a few things going which I will look at tomorrow morning over my breakfast coffee and see if I'm on the right track.

New colour: Cobalt Teal

Sea Of Light - stage 5

 I have been working on the mid ground mosque and trees but stopped here as I need to look at it with fresh eyes tomorrow, something bugs me about it.... it might just need knocking back slightly...

Sea Of Light - Stage 4

 Darkened the sky slightly at top left, roughed in some green into the trees and then the first colour pass on the mosque (well most of it).

Sea Of Light - stage 3

 First colour pass on the background mountains, I left the sky pretty much alone today and will go over both tomorrow to knock back etc, Trying to keep it light and airy.

New colour used: Ultramarine Violet

Sea Of Light - stage 2

 First colour pass on the sky which I took quite slowly and carefully as it needs to be kept light and subtle yet still relatively colourful if the lighting idea of the light burst near the boat is to work - the whole of the painting has to kept light and airy to suit the title.

Colours used: Kings Blue Light, Manganese Violet, Burnt Sienna, Permanent Orange, Naples Yellow Reddish Extra, Cadmium Yellow Pale, Lead Tin Yellow Lemon and Warm White.

Sea of Light - stage 1

 Apologies for a dearth of recent posts but I have been unable to access my blog for new posts until today when a Mac expert managed to reconnect me - a new Google Sign In procedure caused all the problems....

This is the tonal underpainting stage of the companion painting to the previous "Sea of Shadows" the progress of which I was unable to post. I have a burst of light by the boat, a motif that I might develop as a visual device and an alternative to the points of light that I have recently been playing with. Whether there is any mileage for this in my "Point of Light" gallery work series I'm not sure yet.

I want this one to be full of late afternoon light as a contrast to the relatively gloomy "Sea of Shadows". 

Oil on linen 22" x 16".