 |
| Canyon Abstract No.2 16x20 Oil - Available Here |
This past week, I went through my “Pandemic Sketchbook,” looking for another canyon sketch to turn into a larger painting. One of my favorites is this 5x8 gouache sketch:
I like it because of the unsettling, vertiginous feeling I get when I look at the boulder on the left. It seems almost suspended in mid-slide, as if it would take only a small touch to get it going again. I thought that, if I made an even larger image, I could intensify that feeling.
I first toned the 16x20 canvas with a thin wash of acrylic yellow ochre. Then, as with the last canyon painting, I used Van Dyke brown to lay in the dark notes, followed by burnt sienna in some of the shadows to indicate where warm light would be bouncing into them. I had a lot of fun playing with greens, blues and reds in the shadows.
It was all smooth sailing—until I reached the right half of the canvas. I wanted this to be a large, mostly empty area to make the boulder seem even more precarious. In the gouache sketch, I had a couple of thin trees in that area, anchored by a shadowed ledge, but I decided they weren't necessary as they detracted from my idea. But what to put there? The area needed something, some dark shape, to balance the visual weight of the boulder.
I repainted this area twice, each time missing the mark. My first attempt, a large dark shape, felt too heavy; my second, a smaller shape, still seemed too much. Finally, I hit upon the solution. A thin crack pulled the eye just enough to balance the boulder.
Here are the steps in the process, followed by some details shots.
 |
| That dark shape on the right was going to give me trouble! |
 |
| I replaced the big dark shape on the right with another, smaller one down toward the bottom. |
 |
| I finally got rid of that annoying dark square and replaced it with a simple, thin crack. Finished: Canyon Abstract No. 2 16x20 Oil |
Some detail shots:
