What does Chinatown have in common with the salt mine? One, they waited a long time for me to paint them, and two, they both had strong under painting. It is proving a challenge to paint the water over red.
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| Goderich salt mines, underpainting |
The initial drawing is covered up entirely but I try to leave sparks of the underpainting peeking through in small amounts. Blocking in dark areas is fairly quick and very satisfying!
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| Chinatown, sketch, underpainting and 90% finished, These are Acrylic, 8x10 on stretched canvas. |
My brushes are a mixture of sizes. I want less fussiness so I choose the largest I think I can work with. Ideally, each small painting, if successful, could be made bigger with a similar approach. The Salt Mine, Goderich has subject matter I love. I wish it could look more like Hester Berry painted it! Ah, well, perhaps in time. I think the umbrella in China town needs more bright saturatied colour, and the hats and sign lettering need addition, as well as the flag lettering details. The blue sign at the to needs the top truncated to get the cantilever in the architecture back.
I’m using a new medium for these, by a Canadian company - “TriArt” that offers better UV protection, and improves the stroke.
