Background 47-51 - Five Works in Progress

These are the backgrounds from last month (see post on 22 September 2015) when I completed Autumn Beauty I while painting with the Buckhorn Tuesday Painting Group at St. Matthews Church.

As usual I applied the left over acrylic paint from my palette onto spare canvases as a background and occasionally they become abstract paintings.














Background 47

The first one was raw sienna, burnt sienna and some of the leftover green mixtures.














Background 48

On the second one I used burnt sienna, raw sienna and cadmium yellow.














Background 49

For the third one I used burnt sienna, titanium white, cadmium red, alizarin crimson and the leftover orange mixtures.














Background 50

The fourth one was French ultramarine blue, cerulean blue, alizarin crimson and I added a little titanium white to prevent it from becoming too dark.














Background 51

On the last one I used the remaining colours on the palette which included alizarin crimson, cadmium red, burnt sienna, French ultramarine blue and titanium white.

I will post each of these paintings at a later date once they are completed.

White Water I - A Work in Progress

I like driving along River Road as there are always so many interesting things to see no matter what the season.

I came across this stand of birch trees just south of Lakefield Lock 27.

Today I took the time to pull over and do a small sketch of the birches, rocks and fast flowing water of the Otonabee River.

It is a very pretty place and I will have to make a point of it to return in the fall, winter and spring as I think it would make a nice collection of the four seasons.

I will post this painting later once I finish the rocks and water.

Background 41-46 - Six Works in Progress

As usual after painting with acrylics the remaining paint is applied onto stretch canvas panels as the under paint for future paintings. These are the various ones from Back Lit which was worked  on earlier this week (see post on 10 October 2015).














Background 41

The first one is predominately cadmium red, cadmium yellow with a little bit of titanium white.














Background 42

On the second one the colours are various mixtures of burnt sienna, alizarin crimson, cadmium yellow and titanium white.














Background 43

For the third one it is mainly burnt sienna, raw sienna, with a little cadmium yellow.














Background 44

This background has a base of raw sienna with streaks of alizarin crimson and cadmium red with s touch of French ultramarine blue.















Background 45

This one used most of the remaining French ultramarine blue, Cerulean blue and cobalt blue, burnt sienna and alizarin crimson. There is also a little bit of Titanium white in the top.

In a couple of places in the dark top area a few drops of water touched the paint on the canvas while it was still wet and could be used as "stars" in the sky.















Background 46

This final one is various blends of burnt sienna, Titanium white, Cerulean blue and French ultramarine blue.

I will post each of these backgrounds when they are used in future paintings.

Autumn Leaves IV - A Work in Progress

Today I was teaching the basic watercolour class at KAGS.

I thought I would do "cheater" leaves today for an easy start to paintings of autumn with my beginner painters.














I brought in a number of freshly fallen leaves and had my students paint on the back or front of the leaves and place them on a piece of watercolour paper and press them firmly to transfer the paint.

Each student made their own arrangement and selected the colours for the leaves.

Once they were happy with what they had on the paper they had to firm up the outline lightly with pencil so there were definite edges to their leaves and it was at this point that they added the stems to the leaves.














Next a dark mixture of either browns, greys, purples or black or a combination of the colours was to be applied.

Each student chose their own colour combination and started to put the colour around behind the leaves to the penciled edge.

I will post the completed painting next week and the start of the second way of painting autumn leaves.

ACEO - Autumn Trees 10

This is one of the paintings I started earlier this month when I was in Magnetawan staying at the Knoepfli Inn for a paint out with some members of the KAGS Outdoor Painters' Group (see post on 05 October 2015).

While a have a little time in between preparing the Thanksgiving turkey supper with all the fixing I completed this painting of the autumn forest beside the cottages at the side of the Inn.

Using mainly mixtures of cadmium red, cadmium yellow and alizarin crimson I painted in the brightly coloured leaves in the trees first.

Then with the same colours I added some of the young saplings into the bottom area of the painting.















With a mix of French ultramarine blue and raw sienna I added some of the darker green leaves into some of the shadowed areas.

If you would like more information about ACEO please go to my post on 11 March 2010.

The ACEO shown here is an original watercolour painting using Artist quality Winsor & Newton paint on 140lb. Arches 100% rag, acid free watercolour paper. It is priced at $20.00 and sold unframed.

Back Lit - A Work in Progress

I wanted to get more work done on this painting that I had started last month in the Lucy Manley workshop (see posts on 28 February and 08 October 2015).

First using Titanium white with a touch of cadmium yellow the sky showing through the branches was added covering up many of the areas with the orange background colour showing.

A little bit of Cerulean blue was added to the mix and a few spots were added to the left side.














Next the autumn maples were added into the background with using cadmium red, cadmium yellow and Titanium white. Using this colour most of the green shadowed leaves on the right side were covered.

With the Cerulean blue sky colour a little more white and cadmium yellow was added and some of the green leaves were added into the background trees and the sunlit edge of the shadowed leaves were painted.

Using various mixtures of burnt sienna, French ultramarine blue and cadmium red the trunks and branches were given more definition and a couple of tree trunks were placed into the shadowed on the left.














White was added to the trunk colour and some of the areas of the trunks on the left side were given a few highlights.

Using Cerulean blue and cadmium yellow a few grasses were brightened as though some of the sunlight was able to filter through the leaves and touch them.

I will post this painting at a later date once it has been completed.

Background 39 and 40 - Two Works in Progress

These background paintings were made from using the leftover acrylic paint from yesterday's background painting of Back Lit.














Background 39

For the first one I used alizarin crimson, raw sienna, burnt sienna and a little bit of French ultramarine blue.

For the second one I used the remaining colours of cadmium red, cadmium yellow, cobalt blue, cerulean blue, burnt sienna and titanium white.














Background 40

With the green at the bottom of the canvas it would be an easy matter to make it an early morning scene.

I will post each of these pieces at a later date once more work on them has been completed.