Since I've been "fannying" alot recently :) it struck me the other day that I've not shown you a watercolour painting I did towards the end of last year for someone who wanted it as a surprise for her husband at Christmas. I didn't want.jpg)
to feature it on my website or blog until the guy had received it as a gift, incase someone told him about it and spoilt the surprise. The house is called Tudor Lodge (for obvious reasons!) and is in the village of Repton in Derbyshire. And was a real challenge to draw because of all the architectural lines in it that all had to go in the right direction! But although old buildings might "look" like they have straight lines in them, there are tiny imperfections in the line where the old wood has settled and warped slightly that gives the gentle sag to the roof line, and the timbers on the house itself. Of course part of making a house like this look interesting is not to make every black timber deep black, but to give a bit of colour change within the darks to make it more pleasing to the eye. I loved painting the tiled roof, putting slightly different colours within the blue wash to give the impression of lichens and aged tiles. The old red brick wall infront of the house has lovely faded reds and ochres in it to show the aged variations within the wall. Infact, it was a joy to paint this picture because of all the lovely textures within it - stone, tile, brick, timber, glass, paint, wood, foliage, tarmac, and sky! Its always worth looking at windows when you see a house painted - to see how the artist has depicted it - a window is like a living thing - the glass in it isn't a solid dark, its a light and airy sheet of translucency that picks up whats infront of it as much as whats behind it, in some places.
.jpg)
to feature it on my website or blog until the guy had received it as a gift, incase someone told him about it and spoilt the surprise. The house is called Tudor Lodge (for obvious reasons!) and is in the village of Repton in Derbyshire. And was a real challenge to draw because of all the architectural lines in it that all had to go in the right direction! But although old buildings might "look" like they have straight lines in them, there are tiny imperfections in the line where the old wood has settled and warped slightly that gives the gentle sag to the roof line, and the timbers on the house itself. Of course part of making a house like this look interesting is not to make every black timber deep black, but to give a bit of colour change within the darks to make it more pleasing to the eye. I loved painting the tiled roof, putting slightly different colours within the blue wash to give the impression of lichens and aged tiles. The old red brick wall infront of the house has lovely faded reds and ochres in it to show the aged variations within the wall. Infact, it was a joy to paint this picture because of all the lovely textures within it - stone, tile, brick, timber, glass, paint, wood, foliage, tarmac, and sky! Its always worth looking at windows when you see a house painted - to see how the artist has depicted it - a window is like a living thing - the glass in it isn't a solid dark, its a light and airy sheet of translucency that picks up whats infront of it as much as whats behind it, in some places. So, all in all, I loved painting this challenging picture. Today as I look out of my window its a total contrast to this painting of late summer, as the landscape is now thick with snow, very picturesque in a Christmassy cardy sort of way. Its not often we get snow like this here, so I'm interested in looking at the way the snow forms and lies against roof lines and plant forms....... its always difficult to paint snow scenes, to capture the light against the white...... snow rarely is pure white, its lots of subtle colours................
4 comments:
I always wanted to live in an English Tudor style house. It's my favorte style. Beautiful painting, Jackie. I'll bet he was beyond happy with it.
Congratulations!!! on your 200th post! I look forward to many, many more.
I think people with art backgrounds definitely see more colors in everything!
Looks great! Almost like a photo!
Nitebyrd - Its my favourite style too, so I loved doing it. I hope he was happy with it, his wife was when she saw it.
Thankyou re the 200th post, and I hope to do many more yet!
I think that's right - I was looking at the snow this morning and there are so many tiny nuances of colour in it, and hardly any of it pure white.
Trixie - I take that as a compliment, although the painterly techniques should *add* to the photograph type effect and not replicate it for me to enjoy a painting.
Post a Comment