#4: Foggy Winter Day

I attended my second lesson at the local Michael's. The instructor offered more instruction this time, and had us follow her, step-by-step, through the creation of the painting. She had a finished example of the painting on each table, which I found nice to use to get an idea of where we were going. However, the instructor did not follow the same techniques in painting the trees in the painting she modeled. The painting on our table had more detail. It was interesting to see two different styles and I'm actually not sure which finished painting I prefer. You can see that my 'ghost' trees, those in the fog, depict both styles. I did my first tree, the one on the left, adding the details I saw in the example on our table. I got ahead of the instructor, and misjudged what she wanted us to do.

#4

8" X 10" canvas panel

What I like about the painting:

• I was pleased with the blending of the purple fog with the sky, and with the blending of the colors in the sky. I used the technique Schaefer demonstrated in his video.

What I might do differently:

• I don't particularly care for the empty space behind the ghost trees, nor the sudden transition to colorful trees. 
• I really don't care for the stream. I am thinking a stream in a winter scene such as this, would not be blue. If it were frozen, it would be covered by snow. If it weren't frozen, it would be very dark, and added details of rocks, with or without snow would add some interest.
• I totally misplaced the bird. (Did you even notice the bird?!) First, he needs to be perched on top of the branch. Second, I feel that he gets rather lost in the tree behind him. I don't recall if the instructor's middle tree was placed that way, or not. Also, he is right in the middle. He should have been off of the center line.
• I would take more care painting the bare tree. Some of my branches were too thick. I corrected much of this by making the entire tree larger, but there are still some branches that could stand to go on a diet.

What I learned:

• We used light purple tick marks to identify the center lines of the canvas so we could be sure to place elements off center. We lightly drew in the lines of the horizon and the fog lines.
• The instructor let me use her filbert brush for the trees. I liked the rounded edge. It was also used to make the grass clumps. 
• I need to be more purposeful about sizing and placing objects if I am 'copying' another painting. The instructor's canvas was larger and somehow my trees ended up being the same size as her's and thus ended up too close to one another, or running off the canvas. 
• I am too sparing with my paint, in all ways. I need to put out larger blobs of colors I know will be used a lot. In this painting, blue and white, followed by red. 
• I need to mix larger amounts of paint - I kept running out of colors and had the added hassle of trying to replicate the color.