Oliver's Island - stage 2

The tonal underpainting for "Oliver's Island" is now finished. Actually this is the second time I've painted this location, an island on the Thames near Strand On The Green. This time though I intend it to be much more vague and mysterious as I am only using the basic shapes of the landscape under a night sky with just a touch of moonlight hitting the tops of the clouds. There will be a few lights on the shore to the left picked out from the blue dimness `a la Whistler and his Nocturnes. 
I used the same mix of Burnt Sienna and Manganese Violet thinned with Liquin as Stage 1 to finish off the underpainting.

Unleaded

Gradually narrowing it down to what I'm looking for in terms of tweaking what I do and how I do it, "Unleaded" is now finished after a last minute darker glaze on the sky. I'm trying to give my paintings a Look that has the identity of a painting by Mark Harrison. There are zillions of artists out there all trying to sell to a limited number of buyers and as I make my living from this I need to produce work that sticks out from the crowd and says "buy me!" I have just about worked out the things I like to paint and how I can incorporate my interests in colour, design and atmosphere into a better version of my style so far. This one is trying out some bold colour shapes particularly with red a colour that I love to see in paintings and pushing the atmosphere with the subdued lighting. I have tried to give it the light of early dusk, an abandoned petrol station somewhere in the South West of the USA with three/four areas of red linking to the pink clouds, the colours of the painting based on a red/green near complementary. I'm not quite producing what I'm looking for bearing in mind the mantras stuck to my easel (see previous posts) but I'm getting there.
Oil on linen 16" x 12".
There is a short step-by-step progress through this painting in previous posts on this blog.

Oliver's Island - stage 1

I added a glaze this morning to "Unleaded" which means that I can't scan and post it until tomorrow so I thought that I would make a start on the next one, "Oliver's Island". This is actually the second time that I have painted this location near Strand-On-The-Green in West London although I am only interested in the shapes this time and not interested in the location itself very much. I am now narrowing it down to what I'm trying to achieve, a painting that people will want to buy, not for the location as such but for the painting itself; if you like I'm looking for a "wow" factor, something that will draw people to buy this as opposed to the plethora of art that is out there. It is going to be a nocturne with strong saturated colours with delicate moonlit clouds hanging over the water.
This is the first stage of the tonal underpainting and need this to dry overnight before I put in the clouds tomorrow morning. It was loosely "drawn" up first with a small bristle brush using a mix of Burnt Sienna and Manganese Violet thinned with Liquin and then blocked in with a 1/2" flat brush. 

Unleaded - stage 5

Painted in the first colour pass on the buildings and foreground, realising I can put some red into the petrol pumps, it is good to have about three areas of red in a painting, the other will be the pink in the clouds or maybe in the sign come to think of it. Yes that would be good, three areas of red converging on the pink cloud, sorted.

Unleaded - stage 4

Managed to paint in the sky this morning before I had to go out. I decided to go with a green/blue - red colour complementary using this mix: Emerald Green, Magenta, Brilliant Pink and Zinc White, all Michael Harding plus Naples Yellow Reddish Extra by Old Holland.

Unleaded - stage 3

I finished the tonal underpainting today using the same paint mix of Burnt Sienna and Winsor Violet thinned with Liquin. I felt that I needed the underpainting to be nearer in tone to how I intend to paint it as it will be a good guide for the composition and how I am planning it. It will make more sense once I have painted in the reds into the side of the foreground roof. Hopefully I can get the sky in tomorrow morning before I go away for the rest of the day.

Unleaded - stages 1 & 2

Stage 1

Getting towards the end of these small paintings trying things out. Once I have fixed in my mind how I'm going to use what I've learned from the past couple of months I will get back to larger paintings again, indeed I have a $4000 commission to start very soon! I've hopefully been able to tweak how I go about doing things to produce work for the IX Imaginative Realism market as well as the so-called "Fine Art" market as I need to be selling in both in order to make a living.
This one is of an old abandoned petrol station somewhere in the Midwest. The first stage was "drawn" up with a small bristle brush using a mix of Burnt Sienna and Winsor Violet thinned with Liquin. 
The second stage was painted in the afternoon session just to block in some tone and used the same paint mix with a 1/2" flat brush.

Stage 2