Embarking On A Journey

I was tired after power-washing my sidewalk.  My fingers were numb from clutching onto the spray gun trigger for hours. I spread myself out on the sofa, turned on the tube and somehow dozed off.  Drifting in and out of my dream state, I glimpsed at an image on the tube, just long enough to register that as a couple of horseback riders trotting by a river.

A river bank, two riders, landscape and sky merge into non-distinction.  I have my main characters and the setting.  What was my motivation?  How about interpreting 2 intrepid travellers enduring the relentless bleakness?

I proceeded to position the riders on a curving river bank, at least that was how I recalled the frame.
The void provided by the river contrasted with  the vast expanse of land right above it.  The curve provided a sense of movement, whereas the two riders assumed the more sedentary role.  No I was not confused,  that's just how I perceived the arrangement.  It was contrary to what one might think.

I wanted to add a little intrigue by painting in the reflection of a rider in the water. I used ink to tell this story.  I was really interested in seeing how everything evolved from my serendipitous glance, so I wanted to keep things simple for my framework.

The attention grabbing features were the rounding banks, which defined the main stage.  Horizontal lines gave notion of the vast expanse of real estate, dissolving into the sky.  The paper that I chose was the semi-sized Xuan.  I chose it for its translucent appearance, and that it is easier to push the brushstrokes, allowing excess water from the brush to do its thing; forming interesting edges.
In this case the margin of the reflection in the water resembles indistinguishable vegetation.

Having established this framework, one which looked interesting for me, I forged ahead to paint something with a little more detail in it.

I incorporated light burnt sienna into the color palette.  I thought it worked well within my scheme of events.  I thought it portrayed bleakness without being too cold.  I moved the right bank up from the bottom to allow a more distinct impression of the river rounding the bend, thereby creating more movement in my composition.  I tried to create a sense of the horses kicking up dust as the riders travelled, now adding movement to the originally sedentary figures.

I took advantage of the translucent property of the paper by painting the reflection of a rider on the back of the paper and allow the image to come through the front side.  The effect was visually stunning  when looking at the real painting.  The un-brushed surface worked like a semi-transparent veil.  The reflected silhouette seemed vague and real at the same time.    Perhaps I had trained myself to look for this manifestation, to the point that I became hyper-sensitive to it, thus making a big deal of this trick!  Simply delicious!

I added a little dash of blue-green to the sky and the water for the ominous effect, while leaving a patch of void in the center to expand the distance perspective.

It's time again to pin this up and do a more elaborate perusal.