Windy Day Beach Walkers

Windy Day Beach Walkers - Stage 1

Warm temperatures along with furious waves at low tide brings out walkers and wind surfers alike.   I liked this scene, a typical weekend morning in Marshfield and Duxbury.   Although the center of interest is this very fit couple,  There is a wind surfer out in the distance that I very much wanted to include in my painting to support "windy."

I'm happy with the 8x8 inch square format; it suits the subject.  The shadows of the figures lead my eye into the painting from the right, first to the woman's shoe, then to the man's figure.  The man's dark hair and right shoulder have the sharpest contrast against the white, wind whipped surf.  The fuzzy brown, windblown hair on the woman deemphasizes her in comparison to the man, but her bright red suit asks for attention too.  



In the initial rough in above,  I had kept the swirling surf somewhat blurred.  Once I added the windsurfer, I felt that I needed to make the surf details more distinct, or at least as distinct as the surfer.   There is not much color variation in the water or the sand as it was  a blindingly bright day.  The morning sun is over the water to the left - just off the canvas - giving the figures a backlit look.   My reference photo depicts the couple much darker than they were in person against the super bright beach.   For my painting, I don't want to lose the concept of a blinding sun,  but I want to keep the shadow side of the figures distinguishable.  For my first try, I mixed skin color that was darker than I would normally use, but not as dark as my reference photo.    The result a bizarre looking couple with orange legs and glowing hands.  



Windy Day Beach Walk



Squinting made me realize that I had to darken their legs to at least the same value as their sneakers.    I mixed the orangy flesh tone with burnt sienna and viridian green.   I wanted to retain the backlit look on their limbs and did this by only overpainting the majority of the limbs, and leaving the mid-tone orange as a sliver of light toward the sun. 

Here is my painting.   There are still a few corrections to be made (like the woman's muddy left hand) but much better.   Anyone have any comments for me?

Does the windsurfer look like a seagull?