Page No2

Now everything is dry I can start to add some stronger colour to the outside of the painting. This will get darker as I reach the edges of the sketch. The colour I choose for this is Naples Yellow, I feel the painting just needs a little more colour. I have decided that the sky is ok so I shall leave it alone. I now want some warmth so I shall use a wash of Light Red and French Ultramarine with just a small amount of Burnt Umber added to increase the warmth. As the paper is almost dry I drop some Light Red into the field, and I think the painting needs a tiny amount of stronger yellow. I now change my mind and decide that the sky is in need of more colour so to do this I rewet the central area and gently drop some strong Naples Yellow on to the paper, I then leave it to dry. Once dry I now rewet all of the paper, with the exception of the sky and I apply a wash of Prussian Blue. Although it is a blue pigment it makes a nice cool green when mixed with a touch of yellow, any yellow is fine but Cadmium Yellow mixes well. On its own Prussian Blue is nice pale greeny blue colour, add Burnt Umber to it and it then takes on a nice warm green. Because I am looking down and there is no immediate detail to guide me it is a little difficult to gauge distance, paintings tend to work better if there is something close at hand ie: a tree, building, ditch, hedge, whatever, it gives a sense of distance to the composition. So I am going to focus any detail that there is into the center of the painting.
  Back Next