Experimenting

Two A2 pieces completed in the woods. I decided to take more time to do these. Instead of quickly applying paint and moving on, I set myself up in a location more permanently. It meant I could pause and consider more between layers, and could take more time to look and be in my surroundings.

These are the two pieces before I added lines. One of the pieces I wanted to test putting tape down on location before painting on top.

I took more time to think about the texture and thickness of layers before applying them. Adding a larger range of thick and thin applications to create more depth.

Due to all these new approaches to painting outside, the style of these experiments seems more successful. I have noticed I am drawn to scenes of clearings in the trees above, and areas of space below the canopy surrounded by trees trunks. This kind of scene seems to give me a good framework for painting, and connects well with the framework of lines I am adding to the pieces.

After completing the painting in the woods, I made a small sketch of the shape of the structure I wanted to add in ink once back in the studio. I thought about adding the ink outside, but practically, painting them back in the studio seems simpler.

I used a thinner brush than before to add the ink lines, which I think works better because the black doesn’t overwhelm the rest of the painting. Practising on A4 paper before works really well.

For this second experiment I put down thin strips of masking tape once I had decided where I would be painting outside. The tape underneath creates much sharper, lighters lines that appear to have more structure and sharper corners.

However I do like the immediacy of the ink on top, except it is not as obvious with the ink that I am attempting to draw a dimensional structure.

What next? 

So these experiments have worked really well. I like using both the ink and the tape to create the structure, so they need to be tested more before I choose to only use one.

It might also be worth testing some more structural line drawings using a more technical method, working out which angles work to create the illusion of a three-dimensional shape. Perhaps constructing a model would help with that?

I am thinking that next I should work on a larger scale, perhaps on board so that I can have better setup when painting in the woods.

The larger scale will give me more space to push my abstract colour forward, and more space to paint structures that will have a sense of the height and grandeur I am trying to capture.