Thursday - we were back at the Shelburne Farms barns in the morning- but this time it was over by the animal barns and bakery. You can see from my painting here, that I was standing in the largest spot of shade I could find. My sister visiting from Georgia was taken aback by the temperature.
We were learning a lot of interesting details now in the workshop - like the shadow of close branches are crisp and the ones from branches higher up are blurred. The shadow around a cylinder should blend more - no sharp line. We had been using all sorts of combinations for green..... I was mixing far more than using out of the tube colors which was also eye opening and .... messy. Our instructor, Joel, actually buys empty tubes and fills them with colors he has already pre-mixed - crimps the bottom and voila. That's a little advanced for me, but very cool! We were starting to squint a lot - well it was sunny, but it also helps you to see the shadows and temperature differences in the view.
We were moving slower on this - the hottest day (I think it was 97) and paint was drying quickly! After lunch at the Inn we lost a few folks, but the afternoon painting was over at the beach beyond the Inn and there were bits of shade to claim. We knew that Joel painted water scenes beautifully and we wanted to see what he had to share - the direction of lines in the water, the natural Z shape that the eye follows in a painting..
We had really looked at mirroring the colors of the sky into the water - knowing that water doesn't have color but reflects what is around it. We also looked at techniques for creating reflections in the water. At this point we were incorporating what we learned about color of mountains in the distance, washing the sky colors, shadow colors - all into our day 4 drafts. This length of time in learning and practicing together, was showing its benefits.
- Lauren
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