Gouache: Tuscan Landscape

[jester]

Mostly I keep posting at my own sketchbook but I'd like to know what I can do to improve my gouaches. It's about the fifth serious gouache I ever made and I'm still struggling with color-tubes, brushes and so on.

http://www.zwergenhalle.de/folio1/jester-0476.jpg

Jester

[Signature]

Good job. Must be a great reference photo.

Maybe it is not forgiving when you paint it though.
I think it is hard to figure out what I'm looking at ... especially the close objects.
Without knowing the reference image I don't know if they are painted accurately or not.

But I really like the colors and effects that you used. For the leaves for example.

Damn ... I tried traditional painting only once in the Thunderdome 7 time.
Now I'm afraid of touching those brushes again.
I couldn't dream of painting something half as good as that.

[nikia]

Hey Jester, this is looking pretty good. I'm a sucker for anything Tuscan. Try pushing the values and colors more. I've never done gouache, but I've painted quit a bit in oils and acrylics. (traditional) Try some yellow ochre in the leaves and pathway. Also some on the edges of the posts for highlight. Some very dark brown or black on the undersides of the leaves and the nearer edges of the path. Push the values on all that green on the nearer vegetation, (maybe add some very light green, almost white to the tops of the leaves for light reflection) Then add some very dark browns to blacks to the underside of the limbs on the tree, especially where they meet the trunk and on the shadow side of the trunk to give them more depth. The background looks pretty good, you just want to pop the foreground more. I like it and will be looking for an update.

[jester]

Sig, thanks for pointing that out. I'll try to post the reference pic tonight or tomorrow.

nikia, thanks a lot. You are right about the colors: My scanner sucked in a lot of them. I don't know what to do to make the scan more brilliant.

Jester

[nikia]

I usually put my scanned drawings and the ones I use the camera on in photoshop, then use the auto levels on them. After the auto levels, if needed I use auto color or contrast, depending on which one brings it closer to the original color or drawing. You have to experiment to find the ones that bring it closer to the original. If you don't have photoshop, most scanners have close to these type of fixes on them. If I use the camera, most of my black and white drawings end up with a greyish tone to them because I use the contrast to bring out the light pencil work. Otherwise you'd never see my rough work-ups, they're drawn in so light. Hope this helps, maybe someone more computer wise than myself has a better way of doing this.

[jester]

For those of you who asked for it, here are my reference photos. It's plural because tonight I painted another one...

http://www.zwergenhalle.de/folio1/bild-02.jpg

Here's my new painting:

http://www.zwergenhalle.de/folio1/jester-0477.jpg

and the ref pic:

http://www.zwergenhalle.de/folio1/bild-01.jpg

Had some problems with the stone-walls in the gardens. And I didn't want an exact copy but mainly to catch the mood and get much more used to dealing with the gouache colors. However, any advice is welcome, that's why I'm positng here! :)

nikia, thanks for the advice on pushing up the colors with photoshop. Yes, I own version 6.0 so I will try that.

Jester

[nikia]

I like your color scheme Jester. It looks good. On the first painting; the tree at the far end of the path would stand out more if you hazed the background behind it like in the photo. On the second painting; you could bring in more depth to the bush on the house and the two foreward cypress trees by adding daps of black into them. Also I would add a few tiny bits of green and black to the yellow areas on those two cypress. Not much, just enough to break up the yellow ochre a bit. Other than that you have a bit of a crooked problem with the buildings and the posts on the first painting. These are easily fixed I think. Lol, my son tells me I like primary colors too much when I paint. I guess that's why I like Tuscan so much. All those beautiful colors! You've done well with the colors Jester. One more tip: On the grassy area, if you put green, yellow ochre, and brown on the tip of a stiff brush, then just dab straight down with the bristles, you'll get pretty much the same effect as in the photo. Then use just yellow ochre, (you can add a tad of plain yellow also, {to your taste} and go over the sunny areas in the same way. The amount of each color is up to you, play around with it until you get what you want. For instance, for the shady areas, you could just use green, brown and a faint touch of white, instead of ochre. Hope this helps. This picture makes me itch to get back into traditional painting! LOl

[jester]

nikia, thanks a lot for your valuable replies, you are perfectly right on the perspective of the 1st painting. I sort of had it right on the pre-drawing but realized even while painting that something went wrong. I just couldn't make out what it was!

On the second one I used the exact dry brush stippling method you describe - obviously it doesn't show on the scan.

Yesterday I tried two more gouaches (still life with lemons) which left me absolutely frustrated. Today I started another one (I don't give up!) which is drying right now and need a few finalising brush strokes when dry.

Jester

[nikia]

The stippling will blend the colors a bit too much Jester. So I usually go back in after and add a few touches of pure black to bring in more depth and pop the picture into more of a 3D aspect. For instance the underside of the bush on the house. It could use some very dark areas there. Along the bottom edges of the rock wall and house. Also in various areas through the middle of the cypress trees. (for a hint of a truck) These areas will have very dark values. Of course as you say it could be the scan. If you like I could do a paintover for you to show you what I mean. Then you can compare with your orininal painting. Or.........LOL, you can just tell me to go away.

[ElvisMcVegas]

your lighting looks good

[jester]

nikia, I think I know what you mean, however, if it's not too much trouble for you, an overpaint would be very kind, since i have had a tendency to "im-perfecturize" my drawings resp. painting now I usually stop a little bit too early. And by no means go away! Your feedback is highly welcome!

phlem, thanks a lot, for praise as well as for dropping by!

:)

Jester

[nikia]

Here's the paintover Jester. I don't have gouche in my current photoshop, but this will give you an idea of what I was trying to say. I darkened some areas under the bush on the house, cypress trees and brought out your rock wall a bit. I also defined the grass around the cypress trees a bit, (just to show you the difference) and straightened some of your doors, windows, etc. Also defined the edges of the rock walls, (top and bottom) and along the bottom edge of the house. Does this help?

http://www3.telus.net/nikia1/jester_paintover.jpg

[Signature]

Wow the new images are beautiful.

I'm not sure why I didn't get the "close obejct" any more.
After seeing the reference I think you did a good job.
What I didn't get was the descending part.

As I expected the far pillars seem to be viewed more from above in your image.
That seemed a bit strange. You exaggerate what you saw there.
To make the perspective look better you need to show those things as subtle as they are.

Same problem in the new image. The perspective of the elements is often not quite right.

The colors and mood in the new image are great. And the changes that nikia made to the texture are amazing.
The one, far wall ... where it meets the ground it seems too curved I guess. Makes it look a little like a hammock. ;)
And the trees close to the house might look better if they had less of those really bright (yellow) spots.
I think they pop too much and look like something lying on the paper. :P

[jester]

nikia, that overpaint helps a lot - I'll re-work it soon!

signature, thanks a lot, too. You are probably right about the yellow spots, I'll see what it will look like when I applied the black spots nikia suggested.

Sorry, I'm quite busy again, I'll return to this asap.

Jester

[jester]

An overpaint with black spots, just like nikia suggested but in my own "language" ;)

http://www.zwergenhalle.de/folio1/jester-0480.jpg

Jester

[Mindflaw]

Hey your last one is looking better even if imho you overdid the black slightly. Anyway one little suggestion for you to think about. To late for this one but when you start working on a new one and thats is about the buildings make sure to get the "geometrical" shapes perfect( the doors,windows, the house as an entire shape) the vertical lines should be perfectly vertical and not tilt and be parallel to each other. You might even think about using masking tape to block out the shapes so that you could paint freely without messing up the line, it takes time etc (from the fun so to speak), but I think that working those details will add a lot since I think you got all other stuff good like colours etc and made the photo look boring in comparison to your painting. :)

[nikia]

Looks good Jester.

[jester]

Mindflaw, yep, I overdid the black in the cypress-trees and only realized i had too much paint on my brush when I was already applying it with bold strokes... got more careful at the other places, though.

As for the architecture details: You are absolutely right and I also considered using masking fluid (though not tape, might be an alternative!) for this since my pre-drawings are fairly accurate but perspective gets warped immediately after I started painting. Hmmm, probably I also rush things too much (because I don't find much time for arts nowadays but also because I'm a fast worker generally). Thanks for the hints and your input!

nikia, thanks again, your overpaint did help to get an idea! (I will take a look at your coolageman drawing asap, I just realized that it's 1:27 am already and I definitely HAVE to go to bed now!)

Jester