Step 4 Wiggly Waterhole - Paint Along With Me

BEFORE any good painting can be started, we need to do some work in our art journals resolving issues. Start a new double page and perhaps name your painting. This name may not be your final name but one you can refer to which will jog your memory of where you were or what you were doing. Write all your answers in the journal you can have more than one answer per heading. Going thru this process and resolving all the relevant questions begins to eliminate the possibility of a major flaw evolving down the track when correction maybe be impossible to fix or extremely difficult.
 
Mood – What sort of mood did you feel when you took this photo or where you are standing if painting plein air? Happy, sad, hot, cold and what sort of mood are you trying to portray, calm, energetic, exhilarating, playful, seductive? You can write more than one answer.
 
Focal Point – What do you consider the most important element in the scene? What caught your eye to this element was it light, dark shadows or some shape. Where is it located in the scene? Remember your rule of Thirds.
 
Tone – Is the scene high tone (bright sunny day at the beach) or low tone (stormy afternoon). Write down the range of tones you see. For example, 3-7
 
Colour – What will your main colour be? Will it be a warm painting or a cool painting? What will be the main underlying colour palette or colour harmony? What colour scheme will you use? The colour wheel will assist you with this selection. Also ask yourself how intense do you want to have you painting?
 
Texture – How much if any texture do you want in your painting if any? How will you apply the texture, painterly, impressionistic or highly rendered?
 
Lots of questions before you get started BUT questions which will assist you to make the decisions required to take the next step.

I will dedicate a minimum double page spread for each of my projects, I include the original photo, my tonal study, the answers to my questions and also my colour swatches.

Let's see how you go. I will give my answers in thew next blog.