Blocking in Large Shapes-Foundation of the Painting

All the Michael Harding tubes of paint! I have a rainbow!

Notice the layout of colors on the palette.

Hello everyone!

Yesterday, I finally cleared enough off my schedule to play with the ocean waves painting. I believe that playing is a better word than painting. Why? Because it allows me to make mistakes and not worry about them. At this stage, I have confidence that I can correct anything I do. It’s a fun journey to challenge yourself when you paint or write yourself into a corner.

I started off yesterday with a colorful and “unlimited” palette of gorgeous Michael Harding Oil Paints. I expanded my very limited paints to include a range of blues, reds, and yellows. I threw greens and purples on there too. I threw caution to the wind because I knew with Michael Harding paints, you can’t go wrong (as in making an ugly color or “mud”)!

Above are two pictures of the tubes of paint and of my palette.

Then I got to work. Above is the live (on tape) demonstration of blocking in shapes. Note that I wasn’t worried about texture or details. I wanted big shapes of color that I will refine over the coming days. I ended with a quick demonstration of “details” on the rocks, just to show the difference. I can’t stop my mind from jumping ahead, so the little details at the end were an experiment with color. The questions are, what colors do I want to use to pull out light hitting on the rocks? How will I build these rocks? Where are the waves going to crash against the rocks? What’s the composition looking like? What changes do I want to make?

During the session, I thought about value, shape, design–keeping the values dark, knowing I can always come up in value. I plan on playing more with these blues, greens, and blue side purples in the water. I want to add more gray tones so that the waves really pop with color, remember this is a sunset painting and the impact a sun setting has on the colors.

But most of all, I want to remember this is play. I am going to allow myself the opportunity to answer that what-if question. I hope you join me in this journey.

Cheers,

Linda