Painting from photographs

Snow Painting: the Working Sketch

/ davidrpharmer / 2 Comments

Snow Painting Sketch

This is my sketch, done fairly quickly, which, I think will give me some sense of direction. I need to use the photograph less now and my sketch more

The snow will be denoted by the paper that I shall leave white. There will be some masking out to be done, and as I don’t have a photographic reference for the snow, I shall have to be thorough in planning where the snow would lie. One thing that masking fluid is good for, is making a blobby line which does give the appearance of snow

I must remember to put snow on both sides of the roof. This is easily forgotten. I have certainly forgotten to show this on the drawing. Some will gather in the trough of the broach spire. Window ledges, tops of grave stones, buttresses, snow will cling to horizontal surfaces of these. The ground level must look uneven as snow piles up the wall of the church

I usually like to paint snow-covered buildings as though some slight thaw has taken place, so that the ridge-tiles and part of the roof show through. This makes a bit more interest and relief from all that white.

The church stands on high ground. I have exaggerated the gradient in the drawing, slightly, to increase the interest. Shadows, when I put them in, will tell the eye where the ground lies, and pick out the ups and downs. Also I have put a couple of houses in the background, which are dropped down behind the slope.

I usually put in some frozen looking bushes and dead-looking grasses, strategically, so that hopefully they will indicate that the ground slopes down towards us

So, plenty to do. Best get on.

Snow Painting

/ davidrpharmer / 3 Comments

Pyrford Parish Church

Using the charming little church of St.Nicholas at Pyrford, one of the Woking villages. To give an idea of the sort of effect I want to achieve, the following painting of Wanborough Barn near Farnham, was done from a photograph without snow, just adding snow from imagination. We don’t get enough snow, I am afraid, to get good snow scene shots to work from, so we will just have to adapt what we haveWanborough Barn near Farnham

Wanborough Barn near Farnham, with added snow

So that is the task to be tackled next. I need a snow scene for my next exhibition, as usually they sell quite well.

Just a word about St.Nicholas Church. It is an unspoiled but humble village church of the 12th century, retaining many of its original Norman features. Unexceptional apart from having a porch on both sides, which is unusual. It is built from local materials, naturally, using pudding stone and clunch, which is the hard form of the local chalk, used quite a lot for building materials in the area. In some parts of the church, not on the shot I have shown, the walls have been stuccoed over, which was done to give the appearance of stone

That should keep me busy for a little while. I will publish the working sketch just out of interest, just to see which way we go with this

Different people have asked to see photographs of my workspace. I have been taking some pictures and will run a post on that. Not very impressive as we live in a 19th century cottage, and space is at a premium, but it is always surprising how well you can operate from a little corner. Good lighting is essential, and the rather expensive lighting I use, I actually prefer to daylight

I will go into detail on that at a later date