sketching plein air and then playing in Photoshop

I scanned the plein air sketch on the right below into the computer and then desaturated it and manipulated it a little (above) - and now I'm working on a large charcoal sketch based on it. It was quite windy and the tall grasses were bending and I want to get the feel of this into the bigger drawing.

I do like charcoal :>) so I'm looking forward to working on this.

I sketched again near where I did the cowparsley and fields of rapeseed (the 2 left hand pages) - the fields are no longer yellow, the flowers are almost gone now and the cow parsley is starting to go to seed (right hand page). Things change so quickly.



Comments

harry bell said…
This reminds me of the method I used when I first started to paint. I didn't have the opportunity to spend much time outside drawing, so I'd take a photograph and produce a black & white photocopy on the office copier. Then I'd do a charcoal drawing from the copy. The final oil painting was made using the photograph, the photocopy and the drawing to varying degrees.
10:42 am
vivien said…
it's a very good way of freeing up and getting away from the tightness of the photograph if you are working from one isn't it? :>)
6:53 pm
derek jones said…
vivien - this looks really dynamic and interesting
8:18 am
vivien said…
thanks Derek :>)
8:57 am
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Eye, Urban/Rural exhibition

Image
Vivien Blackburn's work in the Urban/Rural show We've just hung a group show at the The Eye Project, Urban/Rural show.  If you want to come and see it it's on for a month - well worth seeing, 11 lovely artists and some fabulous work. Those large canvasses are 40 inches square. There are rural landscapes, flowerscapes, intriguing textile work including a large knitted building, abstracts .... something for everyone. It's in the gallery below the cafe in the Adult Education Centre at the top of Wellington street, Leicester, opposite Fenwicks.  Meet the Arttists day is Saturday 1st April 10-2.  Come and have a chat with us?
Read more

paint or sketch trees: challenge

Image
Close up of tree bark, Marqueyssac, France. photo: Vivien Blackburn Another challenge Rather than another update on the seascapes I've decided to run another challenge in response to feedback from the trees post. Feedback from people said they got a lot out of the skies challenge and I'm sure you will out of this one :>) click the image on the left to link to the original post on trees and you can check all posts with the tag 'trees' here The challenge is to produce sketches of trees done from life. These can be: close ups, extreme close ups, whole tree, part of tree, distant views - whatever you want. Style: anything goes - photorealism to impressionism but with underlying observation Medium: your choice, anything goes :>) oil paints, acrylics, watercolours, mixed media, charcoal, graphite, coloured pencils, pen, oil pastels, pastels, pastel pencils ....... etc etc etc Timescale: we'll finish at the end of July and I'll post links to your blogs t
Read more

playing with watercolours and coloured pencils

Image
This is a page of watercolour studies of pansies, not intended to be 'a painting', I did a while ago that I came across. It's a grey rainy day and the light isn't good to get on with the canvasses so I decided to try to pull it together as a composition. I used a bit more watercolour and coloured pencils and cropped it and added the soft blue green background to cool it down a little - the colours felt too hot. The deep dark pansies were really velvety and intense and maybe not the colour scheme I would have set out to use with the orange and pale yellows - but the background helps to knit them together. Bringing the soft mauves into the darker flowers also helped. I also took another look at a mixed media woodland that was unfinished and worked a little more on that. It has a little oil pastel in the early stages, watercolour and then coloured pencils.
Read more