How to underpaint a Roman wall....and why you never never forget your flask!

After a very busy few months, it was back into the studio today to continue with my current 2 pieces, my pa of the Balkerne Gate and St Botolphs's, both in Colchester.  Having got half way to the studio before realising I had left my sketchbook at home with the work I would need to continue with the St Botolph's piece, the decision was made for me to concentrate on Balkerne gate for today.

In my previous posts you will see the work I have done so far on this piece, today was about the underpainting on the gate.

I decided to use the same Indian Red as I had used in the underpainting for the sky.

 It's a very warm teracotta colour, that I'm using to highlight it's Roman origins.  The brincks in the wall are still visibly red in colour but have changed colour due to erosion, time and pollution.
By hinting at the brickwork detail, although this will be painted over at a later stage, it will aloow me to follow some of the lines when I do the overpainting.

With some colour added to the floor it was time to bring in dome tomes to help give it definition and depth.  Black at this stage would be too severe so instead I began to mix Steel Blue, into the Indian Red.  This was the colour I had used for the sky, so Iwas almost painting the direct reversal for the foreground as I had for the background
I wasn't sure if this would give it too much of a purple hue, but i was pleased with the results.

I began working in the darker tones gradually as I didn't want to overwhelm the balance of the piece.
at this point it would have been good to stand back with a cuppa whilst I decided on my next move.  Only I realised not only had I forgotten my sketchbook but also my flask.  Now this was a crisis as far as i was concerned....I cannot remeber the last time I painted without a cup of tea or coffee and I can say it is not an experience I wish to repeat.  It is practically improssible to be creative without a hot beverage!!

Without much choice I had to power through.  I decoded to add some highlights, but not with white as this would be too much of a washout for the colours.  I wanted to keep it warm so began the hunt around my space for yellow.  it wasn't quite the shade i was looking for....in fact i'm not sure what shade it was, but it was the only one I had *note to self, stop on the way home to purchase a better shade of yellow*.

When mixed with the Indian Red it actually worked quite well (but I still stopped ont he way home anyway!)

By using an the blue to give the structural defination, this will help me to add much more depth with the overpainting later and not lose the larger areas of tone when I add a lot more of the brickwork detail later.

So I left the studio today, pleased with how it's developing.  Next week i need to remember to take my sketchbook so that I can make a start on the St Botolph's piece and will NEVER AGAIN forget to take my falsk to the studio - schoolgirl error, Eve....schoolgirl error!

Corner cutting and drawing in the dark

With canvas procured I went off to the studio today with a spring in my step and Paloma Faith blasting out of the car.  After a lot of planning and research I could get underway.  I have to admit I envisage this work to be on a larger scale, however the constraints of boot size and with no access to a larger vehicle, I had to go with a size that I could get to and from my studio space.

So without anymore delay I'm staring at the slightly overwhelming sight of a blank canvas.  It doesn't matter how many times in my life I have started a new piece, I always find the sight of a blank canvas daunting. BUT, that soon disappeared as this was the first chance for me to give my new toy a whirl.  I've bought a tracer, and before you start thinking "cheat!", I'm using it to project my own drawings onto larger canvases.  I am corner cutting yes, however it saves a lot of time and frustration measuring and scaling up and I am happy to use technology as a part of the process.

So the next question was composition; in my preparatory sketch of the Roman gate it was landscape, but I wanted the painting to be portrait.  So how much to include.....

Apologies for the quality of the pictures above, but I was taking them on my camera phone in the dark!  After a lot of walking from one side of my studio (now when I say walking, my studio space is rather bijou, so it is more like taking 2 steps!) to the other, tilting my head one way, then the other and talking to myself an AWFUL lot, I decided to go with the composition on the right.  I thought it more dynamic and envisaged the whole composition working better.  I preferred the proportions of sky to gateway and floor here.  If you have read my previous posts you will know that I am creating a layered landscape.  I will not only be painting but also collaging and including images from Colchester's rather colourful past.  Rather than painting just a snapshot of a place in a particular moment in time, I will be getting under it's skin; almost like an archaeologist scraping away layers of time.  I'm a geek and proud, so this work taps into my love of history and research.  See....geek!!!!

With my composition decided upon, then started my next challenge....find a pencil!  How does an artists' studio not have a pencil in it?! I really have no idea what happened to them all.  I finally managed to locate a "Birdworld" pencil that had obviously been bought for me at some point...probably as a joke I can't really remember, but it was sharp and that was all that mattered.  I started with the outline;

......and then eureka!! Whilst stopping for a quick chocolate break I found 2 graphite sticks...hurrah!!  I then began working the darker shades into the surface and giving it extra detail.  I'm working in the dark with the projector and can't really see a thing, so there's no way I can paint like that.  I needed to get as much detail into the drawing as possible to be a guide for the layers of paint that will follow.

I kept the mark making quick and loose as when I come to paint, although working from my original sketch (see previous posts) I want to still have freedom.  With too much information it will constrain the brush strokes and the painting will loose it's energy.

So after 20 or so minutes, working into the image and adding more to the left hand side, making the gateway disappear off to the left hand side of the canvas, I had enough information in the drawing to be to begin drawing on my next studio session.  Here's where I left it and will post the works progress here once the painting is underway so stay tuned.