A Winter's Morning Sun, oil/panel, 12"x24"
A favorite subject of mine -- not the tree, the light. Read on.
This entire painting, just as in this detail, is all about the mingling of warm and cool passages of paint which translates into light and shadow. Keeping the eye visually entertained is paramount in my approach so that no matter how minutely you look at a section of the painting it is a microcosm of the entire work.
This section of the painting is sun struck and therefore is predominately warm -- note the word, predominately. There are still cool passages to give interest and vitality to the warmth of the light.
Here the application of paint is somewhat different. I am using the handle of the brush to scrape and carve back into shapes to suggest the texture of the pine needles and the distant grasses -- literally pushing and abrading the surface to create the needed texture.
Rather than using extreme value contrasts, I have found that using temperature changes to portray light and shadow creates more luminosity. By keeping my values close, a lighter and more atmospheric effect is achieved.
Here, the sunlit portion of the pine needles is made more intense by placing complimentary pieces of paint to act as a foil to the warm orange light. If you notice the complimentary colors are kept in the same value in the light and lowered in the shadow to keep the 2 groups, light and shadow, separate. The light has it's particular family of color and values as does the shadow.
This is an extreme close-up of a tiny section of the painting where the tree root meets and merges into the ground. The mingled color here is kept fresh by not over mixing on the palette but rather letting the color blend and fuse within previous passages on the painting.
The same approach works here in the deep shadow, variations of warm and cooler passages kept in the same value.
This entire painting, just as in this detail, is all about the mingling of warm and cool passages of paint which translates into light and shadow. Keeping the eye visually entertained is paramount in my approach so that no matter how minutely you look at a section of the painting it is a microcosm of the entire work.
This section of the painting is sun struck and therefore is predominately warm -- note the word, predominately. There are still cool passages to give interest and vitality to the warmth of the light.
Here the application of paint is somewhat different. I am using the handle of the brush to scrape and carve back into shapes to suggest the texture of the pine needles and the distant grasses -- literally pushing and abrading the surface to create the needed texture.
