More Barns

Today I painted the same scene twice, with differences in the cropping and styles. The first painting is a tighter style that is painted from the distance to the foreground in layers. The second is painted darkest values to lightest and is a looser style compared to the first. I think the second painting has more potential for further paintings but the first turned out better this time. The depth reads well in the first painting. The second painting I learned more from. The tree should have a better defined shape. It could read better against the high contrast small barn behind it. Also the shadow needs to be defined better. When the pastel version of this painting is done I will go with the second painting as a template and alter it from what I've learned. I'm happy with how they turned out given the short amount of time spent drawing and finishing the paintings.

Red Barn

Today I painted a red barn that I saw out west of Indianapolis. It was a simple picture with not a lot going on so I figured it would be good practice for getting used to these brushes. There was water spilled on the left tree and the bottom layer of grass could have used more interest. The bottom should have been raised on one side and lowered on the other. For now on I wont let a straight line run horizontally completely across the page. It should be broken up or only go across part of the way.