I made the classic mistake of 'chasing the light' which very quickly lit up the entire building as the shadows fell away. Doing that, I lost the very thing that was so appealing earlier in the morning. On top of that basic error, I had committed a number of drawing mistakes. My perspective wasn't correct and I had placed the building too far to one side of the composition. There were a number of simple drawing and relationship errors as well. In short, I had done a very poor job of planning the painting in the beginning and then compounded that mistake with lousy, rushed execution. Normally I would have wiped the painting down to save the RayMar panel or simply set it aside to join a pile of other failed works. But I was bothered that I had missed the target so widely on this effort and I decided to try to learn from it.
After the painting was completely dry, I redrew the building directly on the panel with charcoal. I paid attention to the perspective in particular. The colors in the original plein air work were dull, particularly in the sunlit areas, including the side of the building. I pushed the color a bit in some places....or so I thought....but interestingly it turned out much closer to the 'real thing' than I would have guessed.
In the end, I felt good that I had not given up...that instead, I found solutions and worked through the problems. The next time I go out to paint on location, I'll have this little exercise to fall back on.
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| Morning Light On The Jackson Courthouse Oil on 16" x 12" canvas panel |
My Art Site: Bruce Hancock Fine Art
