Just Notes and Background Images

June 2024

I did a watercolor demonstration for the Brush and Palette Club, Lenoir, NC.  Here are some notes and images that I presented.

This is the finished painting... Note that as I planned my painting, I rethought the direction of  light direction from the front to an undefined back light source.  This gave the stone arch more power and contrast against the sky.  Back lighting also gave me a source for warm reflected light between the middle rock and the big arch as well as a nice reflection in the top of the arch opening.   I kept a bit of cool reflected light from the sky on the face of the stone arch.  

This is my thumbnail sketch (about 2.5"x4").  When I have a sketch like this I don't use the photo reference again.  This gives me my basic composition, values and light which is all I need for my painting.  It also gives me the freedom to change objects and color as needed for composition or interest. 

My reference image... cropped from the background of a long distance photo on a gray non dramatic day with no detail except the general shapes that interested me.