This session I traveled to Matthews Beach Park in Seattle. It was a small park with a bunch of people and ducks. I didn’t mind the ducks. But the views were really nice, I had a wide range of subjects to paint.
Today I traveled to Matthews Beach Park. The park was small, but the views were great. I had a clear view of the cascade mountains but I learned quickly that mountains in the distance are pretty tiny, so I left them out of the painting and focused on a nice tree that I found. I also found a nice piece of shade to sit under. It was a wonderful day to paint, perfect weather. And since I learned that I need to face in an eastern direction after 12pm it made this session much more enjoyable.
I really took my time drawing this tree. And when I worked I really worked hard on putting everything down correctly. This is partly why the canvas is not fully covered. I really just wanted to have whatever I laid down to be correct the first time, so I really took my time. I so many great painters leave the canvas blank and focus on a certain area, so I don’t feel bad that the canvas is not covered. I believe that what I accomplished on this painting was as best as I can do right now. Which I must say, after looking at a photo of it, isn’t much to get excited over 🙁
The Painting
The Setup
My hierarchy of painting importance
- Drawing
- Value
- Edges
- Composition
- Color
Value
How can I improve the values?
Still too light with the background land mass across the lake. I’m also too light with the dark areas of the water. The colors there area so intense that its really hard to judge the values.