The Evolution of a Painting
I've been working on this painting for months, a little bit at a time, mostly on Sunday's when I have the luxury to linger in my art room. I took this picture from the Skansie Brother's Netshed in Gig Harbor in February. It is a historical building where they have kept all of the workings of a Netshed lovingly and historically preserved for locals to walk through. All of the nets hang, fishing tools displayed. It also hosts a lovely view of the harbor. You can imagine the fishing boat pulling up and all the nets being returned and stored.
This is the history of the Skansie Brother's Netshed: http://www.skansiebrothersnetshed.com/
The canvas is a large one 30" x 40"
Acrylic paint.
I will take more initial pictures of the under drawing for the next one. I use really small print out of the picture 2" x 3" and I sketch with a Stabilo pencil until I get all the pieces where I like them, never exact to the original but close.
working on the details
Taking a picture of your work and then changing the setting to black
and white can be very helpful for assessing the values.
The middle stages of a painting can be ugly and working out detail by detail
can take much time. The rope drove me crazy. I must have redone it 5-6 times.
I also struggled with the nets and lighting but finally got to a happy place with them.
In these I was happy with the details but added orange to the sky and water; this helped in some ways but I didn't like the the color at the top and then the water started to compete with the other details.
The lighting was bad in this corner of the room casting a shadow over the left side, as you can see below when I used the black and white filter again.
So, finally really close in this one; I almost thought I was finished
but the water was still bothering me, so I calmed it down.
Finished painting! I love how the orange and blue play off of each other.
The browns and grays finally in the right tones.
I have another Netshed painting I want to do in this same size but horizontal.
It's an interior shot. I'm pretty excited. I kept my color palette from this one so that I can use the same colors in the next one. I think the layers of colors underneath give a depth to the blue. Such wonderful memories I have of being by and on the water in Gig Harbor.
