Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Tuesday, October 16, 2007 - Class Work + Dragonfly Again

We had watercolor class on Monday morning instead of Tuesday morning - and did landscapes. I took a 5 x 7 photo from Jerry's trip to the UK - this is Beaumaris Castle in Wales - and did that one. I'm not good at landscapes. I don't do greens well. But I tried...
And I worked a bit more on Jerry's dragonfly so you can see the body position and shape better and took the background back to a paler color so you can see the dragonfly. I think this works better.



Now have lots of jobs to do around the house and errands to run today...so catch you tomorrow!

6 comments:

Watercolors by Susan Roper said...

Rhonda,

I like the way the dragonfly is the real star of the piece now. This is a very serene painting to me for some reason, maybe in its simplicity? Good job on the gesso.

The castle painting greens look fine and very watercolory to me. My only question would be to look at the reflection shapes on the water. Maybe it depends on the way the light is hitting the buildings to create the shadows on the water; check the ref photo, but it seems to me the angle of the buildings' reflections should go back toward the buildings? If it is a mirror reflection it seems it should, anyway. I don't know what the ref photo shows so I may be totally wrong, but that looked questionable to me when I first looked at them. Nice treatment of the bricks without doing every single one and it is a good rendering.

Susan

RH Carpenter said...

Thanks, Susan, for the critiques of both of these. You're right about the shadow in the water - I've angled them instead of bringing them straight down. I added a bit to the bottom and I think that threw me off somehow - especially that angled shadow on the building carried me on the wrong way! Good eyes!

Deb Léger said...

Aside from the angled reflections, Rhonda, it's beautiful. I love the soft feel. You did such a great job on the grays and the bricks. I think your greens look very good. And your sky, too, looks wonderful!

Deb

Nancy Standlee said...

I have a little trouble with greens myself but I think it's good to be painting from original photos. Thanks for the link and I've added you to my list of fav blogs. Regards,
http://nancystandlee.blogspot.com

Watercolors by Susan Roper said...

Rhonda,

Phew! I was afraid I was overstepping my questionable knowledge about these things! But, I have finally figured out so many things based on critiques of my work that some things are starting to make sense to me and I am starting to see them in the works of others. I'm glad you agree with what I said.

RH Carpenter said...

Thanks so much, Susan, Deb and Nancy, for your comments. It's great to get comments on the blog because it makes me feel like someone is reading and watching :) Thanks, Nancy, for adding me to your blog! And again, your portrait (the NFS one) is gorgeous!!