Wednesday 13 March 2013

Salute Sunset WIP

I haven't had much chance to use the oils recently and as the light improved a little over the last couple of days I laid out some paint to make an effort to get the feel of the oil again.  For subject matter I dug out my Venice sketch books and picked a sketch I made one evening as the sun dropped behind the Salute. The sketch along with a photograph taken at the same time provided the source material.

The work so far has established the basic composition and colour ideas for the final composition and is now going to be left for a few days before refining the basic ideas and finishing it off. I've taken it a little bit further than I usually would which might limit the flexibility I have when I return to it. Alternatively I might leave it a little longer to allow a complete drying then key the surface with medium and rework.

Any suggestions you have to make would be gratefully received.


Salute Sunset WIP - Oil on stretched linen

10 comments:

Peter Ward said...

Oil your forte Mick (in my opinion)!

Sophia Khan said...

Hello Mick.

This is a lovely start. I really like the glow of the sunset behind the church.

I might suggest adding some other color to the architecture, to help it stand out from the sea and sky. I do think that might be tricky though as it is a sunset, and colors tend to merge more, so maybe something to play around with on some scrap pieces before implementing.

Looking forward to seeing this progress.

Sharon Whitley said...

I'm not at all familiar with oils having never tried them but this is looking very nice indeed!

Unknown said...

Peter - Cheers.

Unknown said...

Sophia - I've started to have a go at what you suggest. You're correct the picture needs that differentiation even though it's not easy to discern in the source material. I'll post the picture when I think it's just about done.

Unknown said...

Sharon - Thanks. You should you give the oils a go, they're a lot of fun.

Caroline Simmill said...

Hi Mick, nice painting! I think if this is a sunset painting the buildings would be darker if the light is very bright behind them. There needs to be some shadow in the water in front of the buildings and this would give variation to your water which appears to be all the same colour. If you vary the blues a bit that will help and you need to create some feeling of distance too. A little brushwork in the foreground water will make all the difference and give perspective. The colours are really lovely Mick.

Unknown said...

Caroline - Great advice Caroline and you've given me some real meat to work on.

Yvonne Harry said...

I agree with Peter, your feel for oils is really good, but like Caroline I would like to see a greater tonal range. Having said that I think the image has grerat potential. I would love to see you work on an oil 'Iris'

Unknown said...

Yvonne - Thanks a lot. Looking forward to getting back to this. Your suggestion of an oil Iris has me thinking hard.