A journey through the process

 Today I wanted to record my process for others to see and for myself to remember where I've been in the future. For this exercise I am starting out with a photo I took while driving to my parents house. These scenes are what I constantly try and capture. They are peculiar little places where you can see through the visual and physical barriers that separate natures rooms(or in the case of fields, man made). There are tree layers that are separated by two fields. The way one tree layer can be seen through catches my eye, and I want to recreate that sense of a veiled scene behind it. In landscape architecture classes we used to call it framing the scene, when you create an area with trees or man made objects that narrow the eyes onto something of beauty. A place as simple as a field with tall grasses or wildflowers if the case may be, is something that resonates with me. I remember walking through fields of tall grass when I was child and I remember running my hands through the top. Seeing the green-golden grass dance in the wind and a flat plain turn into a rolling ocean when the wind picks up is beautiful. That is what attracts me to scenes like this one. If I am painting in plein air I will set up and start the process in the field. For this painting I was just passing through so I went about and the process is replicated here at home.

The first thing I do is a thumnail of the scene which is the top left corner. In this thumbnail I try and get things to be in the correct place for the most part and the light coming from the right angle. Once I have a thumbnail that is fairly representitive of the scene, I take away the original photo from my sight. This does a few things. It helps me work quickly, because I dont have any details of the scene in front of me. It make me idealize the shapes instead of over working them. Also the values can move towards what the design calls for. In the second thumbnail(top right) I begin moving shapes around to say what originally drawed my attention to the scene in the first place. In this case seeing through the layers to the back field. In this sketch I keep the light direction and mood the same. Looking at the thumbnail I may go ahead and start laying down the lines if everything looks good or re-work the sketch. At this point I thought the drawing needed a lead in. The drawing makes sense to me but if you didn't know what to look for the back field wouldn't pop out to you. With that in mind I begin thinking of ways to bring the viewer into the field. Looking at the shapes I realized that if the light source was moved  there would be shadows cast down on the front field and a nice s curve would go directly where I want the attention. Also with the sun being in that direction and the shadows cast out like that it reads as it being dusk or dawn. Sometimes in the late afternoon before the sun begins to sink down a golden light will cast across the landscape. That got me thinking about color but that is a process that will be covered in a future segment. At this point I go over the thumbnail and it does a good job of leading into the scene and it brings the viewer right to where I'm painting about. At this point I put the sketch book down and get out the pastel paper. Tomorrow I will post the next step.