Personal paintings

 There's not much to today's post. We each started a perspective painting that has some meaning to us, so each one is different. We started with doing some small  studies - about 4 or 5 inches - to play with possible compositions. We looked at things we could eliminate, move, or add to improve the composition.

These should only take a few minutes each, just to get an idea of different ways to compose the painting.

Here are some of the questions you can ask yourself before painting (These came from a lesson by Kiko Tanabe):

1. What is the main focus of this picture?

2. How do I feel about this place or scene? How do I want others to feel about it?

3. What color scheme will convey what I want to say?

4. What can I eliminate? add? to make a better composition?

5. Where do I want my hard edges? my soft and lost edges?

If you are drawing this yourself, first establish your horizon line and vanishing points. Then block in your main elements in very simple shapes - you will define the shapes better later, but for now, make sure you have enough space for the important elements.

One idea is to start the painting with washes of color and add textures, such as Saran wrap, salt, etc. before you even draw the scene. When it is dry, sketch the scene over the color wash. Then paint in the darks.

Here is one I've started.

Here is how I answered those questions noted above:

1. I think the main focus of this scene is all the arches and shadows. But my main focus 

is probably the well.

2. This is San Jose Mission in San Antonio, Texas. Even tho in reality the sky is very blue, I felt very hot there  when we visited. When we toured it, I was reminded of all the native labor and suffering that went into building it so many years ago. 

3. I want a warm color scheme to emphasize the heat of this part of the country.

4. I eliminated a lot of little details and people that were in the photo. Also some of the textures in the buildings. 

5. I want the arches emphasized with hard edges. Softer edges on the far left where the chapel is more distant. Softer edges for the bushes and shrubbery. I want the shadows to be even stronger than they are in the photo.

This has only gone through the first two stages: making a wash on the paper, drawing the mission, and painting in the darks and shadows.

Can't wait to see what each person paints!