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Digital Watercolour Demonstration - Painting of a Barn in ProgressDigital Watercolour Demonstration - Painting of a Barn - in Progress I hope I have the perspective right in this sketch. It was hard to get the elements in that I wanted with already having the sky painted because the clouds give visual clues about distance and lighting. (I could paint a new sky, and maybe in the end I will have to!)
 The trees behind and on the right were started off by being selected with the Lasso Tool, a favourite technique of mine. It keeps the paint going only where I want it to and allows the 'holes' of light shining through the trees to be 'suggested.'
  I used John Derry's WC brushes for the trees on this side. Paintied within the sectioned off area with the Gel Wash first.Then preserving the transparency I used the Gel Splatter with the Jitter (Random) off, allowing me to direct the spots a bit more, and dabbed on some different shades of green. I used the Gel Wet Rough to add some dark shapes and branches. After lightening and darkening to add shadow and shape, I dropped the layer and did some blending. Then I did the sames kinds of things with a smaller splatter outside my selction to paint the smaller bushes in front of the trees.
 Similar techniques were used on the left side trees as well. Done on separate layers, then dropped. Also added a darker cloud above these trees thinking the painting needs it to be balanced. It was getting 'too blocky.' Block of sky, block of trees and barn, block of grasss...see what I mean. Need to mix it up a bit!
* This sky is for dwsel my faithful follower and excellent commentor! There is a link to her site on DeviantArt in my blogroll. She made a comment about this sky in the Comments section!
 I'm calling it "Cloud Illusions I Recall (from the Joni Mitchell song) because I kept singing that song (in my head thank God!) when I was painting it.
 This barnyard part, all the green seemed too much, so I broke it up and added some dirt! Plowed my field ,a bit, as it were! Not sure about this bush in front of the post. I think I'm getting too much detail in here, my usual problem. Maybe I'll take the post out and see what that looks like.
Too late.... the fence post is in there now and I like it!!
 It's finito for now and maybe for good! I like to move on to a new painting rather than go back and rework something too much. I find it loses any semblance of freshness and spontaneity when you do. (My husband calls it 'gilding the lily, but he doesn't know that sometimes a little gilding is necessary!) He implies I should leave well enough alone, and I am learning to suggest more with less, but have a long way to go.
I printed this on Aurora Fine Art paper at this level of dye concentration. About 25 % less than I started painting it at. Used the Epson R1800 Enhanced Matte ICC Profile, and to be honest it looked really good to me. The most like a traditional watercolour that I've managed so far!!
I think I have John Derry to thank for that! I'm loving the new brushes and techniques. I've signed up for his free Webinar on Oct. 2 "All Things Painter with John Derry." Am really excited about it! I'm going to tell my digital painter pals over at Red Bubble about it!
Now I really do have to get ready for my day of selling at Art Walk on Sunday. I made 50 + cards the other day that still need to be packaged, and have more printing to do. Can't stop to fix all my paintings with these new techniques.
Thanks for following along. If you have any questions about how I did it, and what I did, please feel free to comment!
Happy Painting!
Joan
Related postsCommentsJoan A Hamilton said: Hi Dwsel,
Friday, September 25th
John Derry said: Hi Joan:
Friday, September 25th
Joan said: Hi John
Friday, September 25th
dwsel said: I'm glad to hear you're happy with the painting. Colour scheme looks appealing to my eyes. I my opinion field is not overdone and the bush in the front fits into its place.
Friday, September 25th
Jackie Jacobson said: Joan: The finished painting is sooo good. The sky made this piece. It sets the mood. But beyond the sky, you did a wonderful job. Congrats, and good luck at all you do.
Saturday, September 26th
John said: Just purchased John's Watercolours and will use your painting (great clouds!) and advice to try and use them to their best advantage.
Monday, September 28th
Joan said: Hi Jackie
Monday, September 28th
Judith said: Very beautiful Joan. I had no idea you had such a beautiful site and how detailed you are in explaining how you paint your beautiful work. I love this one very much.
Thursday, June 24th
Add a comment |
dwsel said:
First of all, congratulations on such important and serious feature! Exposition of 'Afternoon at the Pond' was well deserved :)
I'm really looking forward to see how 'Barn' painting will end up :) At the moment sky is brilliant! In my opinion after adding some details sky could be even sold as a separate painting. Personally I wouldn't change the sky here a lot, because it looks like a main element (maybe just a bit of gradient glaze or yellow-purple shades to accent and vary the light on them). I don't know how the bottom will look like, but at the moment I feel I'd love to leave 5/8 or even 2/3 part of image for the sky only.
I'll be following updates of this. Good luck!