Latest Shetland Landscape Painting
- on March 16, 2015
- by Donna Marie
- in New Work
0
“Sunset from Hjarkland, Yell, Shetland Isles, UK”
This blog will show you in step by step progress shots the development of my latest Shetland landscape Painting. I hope you enjoy seeing the Painting develop from initial sketch to finished painting. If you have any questions please feel free to contact me. This Painting, Prints and Cards will be available for purchase soon.
Stage 1, Using a CarbOthello pastel pencil on Fisher 400 pastel paper I lay in the initial outline sketch with the main details. At this stage I focus on the basic shapes as any finer details are likely to be covered up during the painting process.
Stage 2, I like to work from the sky, then background, middle ground and lastly foreground. The sky is laid in first using Unison pastels. Fisher 400 pastel paper has a good deal of ‘tooth’, that is to say, texture, it is a very rough surface that grabs and holds on to the pastel and will allow for a good many layers of pastel to be applied. When laying in the sky, or any area on this paper, enough pastel is applied to fill the grain and allow for the pastel to be subtly blended with the fingertips. If too little pastel is applied the rough surface is not forgiving on the fingers. At this stage I am careful to keep a note of which pastels are used as the same colours will be used again in later stages of the painting.
Stage 3, The background and middle ground are now laid in. The distant hills are laid in first. To indicate distance and to give a sense of depth to the painting the colours are predominantly cool, however in this instance I have also added some subtle warm colours to give the sense of ‘glow’ and to keep the colour harmony in the Painting. To further give that sense of distance the outlines of the distant hills are kept soft. Now stepping up to the middle ground the colours are becoming warmer as they come ‘closer’ to the viewer, more details are suggested, however taking care not to overstate detail as at that distance and with the soft glow of light, details would still be diffused.
Stage 4 and completion. Now it is time to work on the foreground and bring the Painting together. Working firstly on the croft house using the pastels to indicate that this is a traditional old stone building, then moving on to the layers of grass and undergrowth in the foreground. In the reference photo there was the remains of a stone wall in the foreground, however at this stage I felt this didn’t add anything to the painting and would have ‘blocked’ the eye of the viewer from travelling into the Painting, so at this point I decided to omit the wall. Now that we are at the foreground, the colours warm again in value. The direction of stroke is important here, the pastel is applied in broad vertical strokes to indicate the growth of grasses. Darker colours are applied right at the bottom which serves to contrast with the greens, that contrast allowing the greens and golds to really come to life. Those darks also allow for the addition and suggestion of wild flowers through the grasses. Some of the same colours that were used in the sky and in the middle ground are also utilised in the foreground to tie the painting together, to give it harmony and to keep that sense of the sunlit glow through the entire Painting.
I hope you like “Sunset from Hjarkland, Yell, Shetland Isles, UK”, For me, it’s a feel good Painting, warm and peaceful, it soothes and stills the soul. If you have any comments or feelings about the Painting I would be delighted to hear them, please feel free to leave a message or comment.
I’d like to thank Charlie Inkster from Yell, Shetland for his kind permission to use his reference photo of Hjarkland, that allowed me to create this Painting.
