Watch out!

DO NOT - I repeat, DO NOT go to Detering Orchards if you have not had the latest puppy vaccination. Luckily I have had it, but sadly, one of the plein air artists that was there yesterday succumbed to puppy fever. By the time I left, they were down to just a single puppy in the box. Rumor has it, an artist caught the fever. As you can see below, a vaccination is truly needed!

Trying something new

Usually when I start a painting, I do a light, rough sketch right on the canvas with pastel pencils, then jump in with the large pastel sticks, loosely painting the background - often the sky, moving from the top of the image to the bottom, working quick and saving the details and focal point for last. For some reason, with this painting I decided to start with the focal point, ignore the sky and surrounding areas, and just fiddle with the perspective, zooming in on the details immediately! Here's a photo of what I was painting - it's on a 4"x12" gallery wrapped canvas:


Here's the first attempt at the little building - I wasn't happy with how it was turning out initially - the perspective seemed off to me, so I kept working it until I was happier. This isn't at the happy place yet!

As this photo shows (if you compare it to the above photo) the light is always changing when you're plein air painting. See how the shadows have changed on the roof of the little shed and along the roadway? That sunlight is moving fast!

After a few hours of work, my painting looked like this below. I'd tweaked the perspective on the shed to where it felt more correct to me - it's close to being finished. I've now decided to eliminate the leaning tree trunks in front of the shed. Sure they were there, but I've realized they really don't help out this painting - at all. Time to pull out my artistic license and remove them. I'm sure I'll see a few more issues with this piece once I start working on it again, but I really like how it's coming along - it's a bright little piece that makes me feel good when I see it.