Beaverton Creek (classical) amended

I've received a lot of criticism regarding this attempt in a more traditional depiction of Beaverton Creek via Chinese brush.  Interestingly a lot of them had to do with composition and whether everything made sense.  The ones I found to be most valid had to do with my rendition of the fir trees at the upper corners.

The trees at the upper left corner looks like 3 incense punks, quipped one observer.  Fir trees do not grow in a single file row, quipped another viewer, pointing to the trees on the right.

I agreed with both of these assessments.  My excuse was that I was too intent on adhering to the Three Perspectives theory in creating this birds-eye view of the plot that I had fragmented the scenery into distinct cue cards;  not to mention the fact that the 3 punks did exist, albeit amongst much shorter woods.  In short, I failed to integrate and transition the different frames into one continuous strip.

I took the advice and added in trees behind the existing ones, and filled in some undergrowth bushes at the bottom of the fir trees.

This is how the amended painting looked:

Just for the heck of it, I took a black and white photo of the painting:

 

 

 





That was interesting!  I might try to paint this again in black and white, hoping that my brushstrokes will emote differently.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Vine Maple Trail amended

I felt something is amiss after look at the finished painting for a few days.  I found it to be a little bland.  Lacking oomph!  My eyes were wandering all over the image, finding no place to indulge.

I decided to ham it up a little. I wanted to accentuate the shadows on the trail.  I needed to restore the difference between light and dark.  I know light values assume a somewhat different presentation in Chinese brush, but I don't profess that this is a traditional Chinese brush either, :p

Trying to lay down water based color on top of a surface finished with gel medium is next to impossible.  The color just sits on top, beading up, as if water on glass.  So I took some gesso and mixed in the color I wanted and made my own color paste.  This worked exceedingly well.  Good enough to show brush marks!

Beaverton Creek Vine Maple Trail ,continued

Not knowing exactly how the bottom layer will come out after it has been superimposed, I decided to err on the cautious side and painted in most of the scenery, except for the obvious foreground.  I also did this bottom layer with a more exaggerated tone.  My theory was that this way the bottom layer would reveal itself better.

Then I decided to add a little interest to the work by painting in something dear, a Deer (bad pun).

 

 

Now it is time to do the top layer.  I put my translucent Xuan on top of the bottom painting, and begin adding in foreground information.

It didn't  take me long to discover a new problem.  What I was viewing through the top layer is not what it would look after the 2 pieces are glued together.  Gluing the two would have eliminated the air gap between them and illustrate the bottom layer much better.  In the mean time, I could only guess.

So I stopped and wet down the top Xuan, just to get a more educated view of the bottom.

 

I hoped to integrate the top layer better with the bottom layer.  I was hoping for a gradual transition from foreground to background.

Wanting to make sure that my deer is not so hidden, I re-painted it on the top layer for insurance.

 

This was how it looked when the 2 layers were mounted together.  While still wet, thus the color was more vibrant, and the paper seemed more transparent.

 

 

 

 

Then I found out what it is like when the 2 layers were misaligned by just a millimeter.  The eyes on the deer have migrated to the top of the head, instead of being lined up with the bottom edge of the ears!

Frantic reworking on the top layer solved that problem.

The painting lost some of its lustre after it was dried.

 

 

An application of gel medium brings back some of that color depth.

I was not too unhappy with the end result.  I wish I could have done a much better job on these trees.  Those are awful awful brushstrokes.  I forgot about "writing" them in and I am not proud of them.

I also realized that no matter how saturated the background colors were, they just don't show through enough to make a difference.  So for background information, it is better to be either succinct dark lines or large patches of color without intricate details.  I also discovered the color on the top Xuan really obscures whatever is on the bottom layer.  In order for the bottom layer to show through, I'll just have to have faith and do not embellish the top layer over the same spots.

Beaverton Creek, Vine Maple Trail

Vine Maple Trail is the main path that leads to Beaverton Creek from the parking lot.   It is a paved blacktop that enjoys filtered sunlight and cooler temperature in the summer and non soggy, non slippery surface in the rainy season.  It is my playground, my gym, my treadmill.

There is this bend in the road where boughs from opposite sides of the road embrace each other to form a series of archways.  With the morning fog and the low angle of light, it is simply ethereal.

I recently got a hold of some really thin and translucent Xuan.  The kid in me urges me to experiment with it.  I wanted to see if I could reassemble this image of depth and light and shadows by using this Xuan as a layer, as in photo editing .

So on this "background" layer, which is a fiber board with glued on canvas, I started to write down what I considered background information; footprint of the trail, trees in a distance.

There was a large fir tree flanking the right side of the trail.  At first I was ambiguous as whether to treat it as background or top layer.  But then I thought what the heck, I laid it down anyways.  If I wasn't happy with it sitting in the background, I could paint it again on the top layer.  Perhaps the 2 layers combined would give it more depth? 

Just to be sure, I found a partially painted piece of this special Xuan and laid the vacant portion over the fir tree.  It did not show through at all, to my horror!  Then I wet down the Xuan to make it more translucent.  Now the bottom image is coming through! 

So this little test validated my concept of top and bottom layers and now I can forge ahead.  My next concern is whether the bottom layer will come through like the way I envisioned it to be.  After all this is not not Photoshop where I can adjust the degree of opacity of the different layers.