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Every month there will be a photograph or sketch on this page for you to convert into a painting. Accompanying the photograph will be some thoughts on the subject plus some tips on ways of tackling the painting. My painting from the photograph will appear at the beginning of the following month, giving you a month to do your painting.

 

Monthly painting project 16

RED BARN, NEW ENGLAND

FEBRUARY 2010

How did you get on painting the New England barn?

Here is my painting and my thoughts on how to paint it.

 

‘The Red Barn,New England’ 

CONCEPT

I wanted this painting to say New England in the Fall with the barn as the central focus. I decided to have the centre of interest on the loading bay on the left hand end of the barn. I moved the barn slightly to the right in order to put in more of the glorious autumn trees, which are part of the rationale for the painting.

COMPOSITION

As I’ve said above, part of my thinking about concept was to move the barn to the right. The road in the photograph was leading the eye out of the picture on the right so I reversed the direction of the road to point to my selected centre of interest. I also omitted the fence.

Two alternative compositions are shown in the tonal sketches in CONTRAST below. I chose tonal plan A but tonal plan B would have been equally good. I’ve introduced a truck and some people by the loading bay at the centre of interest to draw the viewer’s eye here.

CONTRAST

The day was rather dull as shown in the photograph but I decided I needed to introduce some sunshine to light up the scene so I produced the tonal plans shown below.

Red Barn Tonal Plans’

 

In tonal plan A, which I adopted, the sun is coming from the left and in tonal plan B from the right. It’s a useful exercise to produce some tonal plans before you start to paint to work out where you are going to have maximum contrast and to locate the centre of interest. These monochrome postcard-sized tonal plans only take a few minutes but are invaluable guides to the tonal possibilities. I urge you produce tonal plans like this for all your paintings.

 

COLOUR

There are a range of materials and textures here to paint. At the centre of interest the deep red colour of the barn is at its strongest and fades in the shadowed faces. Whilst the wash was still wet I used a penknife to scratch out some lines to indicate the edges of the horizontal boarding. I’ve also made the most of the blazing autumn trees at this point. The grey slate mansard roof has two pitches or slopes so I’ve made the lower slope a slightly darker grey. The yellow/green field has been painted a soft focus raw sienna with some green and light red dropped whilst the first wash was still wet.

 

COMPLETION

I feel the re-designed composition and the contrast and colours used give the impression of this lovely New England barn in the Fall, which was my original concept. However, on reviewing the painting some time later I realised that it had a very horizontal dominance and I felt it needed some vertical elements as a counterfoil to this so I added the telegraph poles – the overhead lines appear in the photograph so I felt it was a legitimate bit of artistic licence. It always pays to put a painting away and come back to it later.

 Next month’s project awaits you.

 

  I’d like to hear from you if you are doing the Monthly Project or if you are just looking at it – please send me an email at robertnewcombe@btinternet.com to let me know if you are finding the painting tips and solutions helpful and perhaps a copy of your painting solution for me to comment on. If you are sending me your painting as an image attachment you will need to photograph it with a digital camera and download it onto a computer – if you don’t use a computer yourself I’m sure you will have a child, grandchild, nephew or niece who will gladly do it for you. It would be useful to know where in the UK or other country that you live.

 

 

Monthly painting project 17

The Custom House, Kings Lynn, West Norfolk

March 2010

The King's Lynn Custom House is one of the town's most iconic landmarks. It was designed by architect Henry Bell and built by Sir John Turner in 1685. Initially, Customs only occupied the top floor and the ground floor was used by merchants for trading - however merchants were unhappy that they were so far from the Tuesday Market Place and by 1717 Customs occupied the entire building.

Whilst today the building is no longer used by Customs it is still a gateway to the town as it houses the town's Tourist Information Office. It is also a Grade I listed building.

The building was described by architect Nikolaus Pevsner as "one of the most perfect buildings ever built".

‘The Custom House, King’s Lynn’ 

 

Here are my thoughts on how to paint it.

CONCEPT

I wanted this painting to say ’Iconic and beautifully proportioned building’ – so the architectural design is the star here and clearly the centre of interest.

COMPOSITION

The photograph shows the Custom House in its setting by the water so an opportunity for reflections. The position of the Custom House is rather central – will you move it to right or left? And what to do with the buildings on the left and the distant buildings on the right behind the bridge? And what about the bridge itself – how will you treat that? Plenty of compositional challenges to solve.

CONTRAST

It was rather a dull day with only a little weak sunshine coming from the right and weak shadows; I see strong shadows as essential to give building subjects a 3-D appearance. So you will have to invent some sunshine and shadows but from which direction will the sun come? You could light up the front or the side facing the water. This will dictate the shadow pattern and highlight the area of greatest contrast. This would be another good opportunity to try some tonal sketches before you start painting.  

COLOUR

The Custom House is in pale yellow stone and the adjoining buildings are red brick. The roofs are tiled. There is a double fronted white building on the right which may need toning down so that it doesn’t detract from the main building. The water will reflect the sky but usually a half tone darker. Remember that dark objects reflect lighter and light objects reflect darker in water.

COMPLETION

This is a chance for some accurate but impressionistic drawing and painting here. Don’t overdo the detail and stop when you feel you have done justice to this magnificent building.

 

My interpretation will be here on the 1st of April.

 

A HELPFUL TIP ON SCALING UP

It is important that in scaling up the photograph the exact proportions are maintained otherwise the drawn copy will be distorted.

To scale up a photograph or sketch accurately place the corner of the photograph exactly on one corner of the sheet of paper as shown below and draw a line using a straightedge from one corner of the photograph to the diagonally opposite corner of the photograph and continue the diagonal line to strike the edge of the painting paper (see diagram below). Where the diagonal line strikes the edge of the paper draw a vertical or horizontal line, depending on whether your line strikes the top or side edge of the paper. The paper dimensions within the vertical or horizontal line are exactly proportional to the dimensions of the photograph. You can then draw a 3 x 3 grid on the paper which will proportionately match the grid on the photograph and enable you to transfer the image accurately.