Adjusting the Dominance

Today we have the first significant snow of the season.  Huge wet flakes drifting in.  Mesmerizing.  A great way to start off the studio this morning.  Looks like Saturday before getting outside again.  By then I'll need to sharpen up again.  If it keeps cooling off I'll have to make an oil change for the outdoor box.


The scene is a late afternoon at Silver Creek.  The sun is blazing.  Warm but cooling quickly.  I am facing north.  The west side of the stream and bank is in shadow.  I am on the road, not good.  Don't hit me.


It came back to me pretty well in the studio.  The on site work was weak in drawing and the shadow side vs the sun side had to be adjusted for value.  Parts of the shadow were too warm and bright.  Parts of the sun side were not hot enough or bright enough - according to my memory and my brief sketch notes.  I wanted the shadow side and temperature to dominate, so I made sure that at least 60% of the picture plane was in shadow.  On the sun lit side coming to light was achieved by going up the practical colour wheel and adding a bit of white (remember that white cools and greys colours).  Since we are only working with pigment we can get light if first we have dark.

Afternoon Delight, 10x12, Oil on Canvas on Board

The concept of the painting was to show the prevailing colour key without seeing the sky.

The painting was done with a #14, a #8, and a #6 hogs bristle Filbert and lots of paint.  The palette was Ceruleum Blue, Cadmium Yellow, Cadmium Yellow Deep, Alizarin, and Titanium White.