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Friday, January 8, 2010

Painting Number 5 - Evergreens in Winter



I have joined a gouache challenge at Wet Canvas and the first thing we had to do was paint all different kinds of trees in as many tones as possible.
So I did trees, evergreens and palms and learned a lot doing this.
I want to become more proficient in gouache for sketching on certain paper that watercolor soaks through.


I took the knowledge I gained in those exercises and tried it in watercolor with these evergreens in winter.  I made the whole composition simple with only three colors; sap green for the trees, ultramarine blue for the sky and ochre for the grass.


8 comments:

Kathy said...

Your limited palette was really successful here! Nice depth, too.

K said...

How cool to be exploring gouache! I have not tried that yet. How different do you find it to be? Very much like acrylics, or still like watercolors?

Gabrielle said...

Oh, you are brave to do gouache! I know a lot of people like it but I had to use it in a design class and I just battled with it.

Really nice shadows on the snow and I like how you painted the grasses. The tree textures/shape are great but maybe the trees need a touch more darker value areas in the branches to give them more 3D and to ground them in the rest of this lovely scene.

Teri said...

I am finding gouache quite fascinating. The more I work with it the better I like it. You can use it thick or thin it like watercolor and mix it with WC. It really is just opaque watercolor that dries very fast and can be painted over and cover the previous color.

The more I research it the more I learn and there are really some fabulous gouache painters out there.

I have not used acrylic so can't speak to that.

Timaree said...

It looks like the trees keep moving into the background. Nice job.

Laure Ferlita said...

Excellent use of lighter values to establish depth in this, Teri! I also agree that your limited palette works very well!

Some suggestions to consider for the NEXT one - try using different values in the sky vs. the ground. Try mixing your blue and ochre for grays to be used in the snow and/or sky. Try mixing your ochre into the green to give the trees in the background not only a lighter look but grayer.

Next!

Claire M said...

The trees are great. I love how you have captured them.

Kelly said...

...beautiful! I love the tones of the blue in the snow...crisp and cold, and the wispy feel of the grasses. I'm used to you painting cacti...at first I had to do a double-take when I saw the snow!