My Grandpuppy, Opie was staying with me for a few days and the pick-up logistics resulted in a delay. Luckily, my complete obsession with painting had driven me to be ready for such an opportunity and that morning and I had packed my paints just in case. I was glad I did.
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| Wooded Hillside Backyard |
The multi-family structure where my son lives is situated at the base of a large steep wooded hill. A three foot retaining wall forms the back barrier against the woods. I was struck by the family friendly, lived-in look of this shared backyard. A collection of grills, chairs, bikes, and trikes were scattered across a nice grassy lawn. It was mostly shaded, but where the light filtered through the trees on the hill, a lacy pattern of light decorated the grass and bikes. Missing were all the children and people that go with these items. It was a weekday though and all was quiet.
My observation was that all the dark areas of the woods seemed warm and more brown than blue or purple. Also the brightly lit grassy areas on the slope were almost "white green." These two observations told me that I had a cool light, warm shadow scheme. I am learning that if I establish this at the outset and stay true to it though the end, I will have a harmonious painting.
I was just about done with my painting session when it was time to take Opie home with me. He was a good boy!
As always I came back to the painting a week later for touch-ups using a photo I had taken. The trap here was being tempted to use the photo to adjust color temperature to a blue shadow scheme, which is typical of photos. I stuck with the cool light, warm shadow. Here it is for comment.
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