Tuesday 6 March 2012

Early Morning On Great Ocean Road

Lots of people ask me about my painting process ... so I thought I would walk you through it step-by-step. This painting titled 'Early Morning On Great Ocean Road' is a great example of how to approach a painting from start to finish. I am fortunate enough to live by the Great Ocean Road and have spent a lot of time there.

In this painting I am painting on a peice of mdf board that has had geso applied to surface. It is 8" x 10" and I have applied masking tape to the back to attach it to a painting board on my easle. I start off with a little burnt sienna thinned down to put in the drawing. At this stage it is really about placement and getting the composition right first.

With the sky I first off apply titanium white thinned down over the entire sky area. Then with a large flat brush I add in Ultramarine Blue. I make sure it is darkest at top of sky and in the outer corners to draw the eye in. I am fairly random on how I apply the paint and leave some gaps as you can see.





In order to get the effect of the early morning sun rising over horizon I add in Yellow Ochre at horizon line and back behind the cliffs. This is then blended back into the sky to create a smoother transition.
I swith to a smaller filbert brush and with a variety of dark mixes (mostly Burnt Sienna & Ultramarine Blue) I start to create the shadow areas of the cliff faces. This is done by dragging the brush downward along cliff face. By varying the colours with more of the blue here and there, and then more of the Burnt Sienna you get a mix of colour and warmer shadow areas. Notice also how I have used the clouds to soften the transition in the sky.



Next I add in highlights on rocks and cliffs using more Yellow Ochre in the mix. Where the cliffs meet the rising sun the cliff face is almost all Yellow Ochre. The sand is blocked in using Yellow Ochre and Titanium White mix and the water is blocked in using Ultramarine Blue and Yellow Ochre mixes.
Finishing touches are added last with the people and their shadows, the whitecaps on the waves and foam on the sand, and of course the foreground rocks. Overall I am happy with the result and this is a great little study to practice as it is a limited pallette used to great effect.

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