Several years ago I came across a reproduction
of an oil painting in a magazine, showing a field at harvest time, full of bales of straw. I was attracted
to this picture, because it had good composition and colour and I could see some possibilities with the use of perspective.
All in all a good scene to use as a watercolour. I have since tried painting this scene, many times with my students with some good results.
On several occasions we have found fields with such round 'bales of straw' - but that was in the days before square bales and bales
completely covered in white plastic!
The first special feature in this painting is the perspective.
Above are four sketches of possible perspectives. The first illustration a) is unusable. Here one is looking 'down' onto the field
from a great height, the lines of harvested hay are completely paralel, the only things that can see a field like this are the birds flying over!
View b) is a little better - but it shows an infinately long field. The reason is that the vanishing point lies on the horizon.
In c) we have a shorter field. The vanishing point has come up over the horizon.
The perspective in this type of model, c) can be changed very easily, not by lifting or lowering the vanishing point, (c), (c1) but by keeping the vanishing point
where it is and fanning out, or in, the vanishing lines!
Try it for yourself.
The perspective I have used in my painting is d). I have moved the vanishing point over to thr right. This allows me to show the bales a little bit from the side - had
I used the perspective from c), I could only see the bales from the back - not quite so interesting!
Having sorted out the perspective, we can now get on with the
painting but first we need a sketch!
Unless you really want to see the pencil lines
through the paint, don't draw the sketch too strongly!
You can see that I haven't marked where the trees should be.
This is because I want to use a 'wet into wet' technique,
so it's no point in drawing trees knowing that I cannot be sure where the paint will stop.
The first thing to paint is the sky and while it is still wet, the trees.
Start by wetting the sky area all the way down to the bales stopping at the field behind them, with clean water. Then
paint the sky: Prussian blue at the top and Prussian blue mixed with a little Alizarin Crimson lower down. The 'clouds' appear by themselves if one doesn't brush the blue colour on too evenly.
The trees are painted onto the wet sky with different mixtures of Ultramatine Blue and Cadmium Yellow.
The trees 'grow' into the sky by themselves when wet green colour is painted onto a wet blue sky!
Next I painted the bales of straw. Only one, the largest in the front is painted with some detail,
the others are more or less suggested.
Note how I have tried to show the bale standing
'in' the grass. I did that by painting the grass, at the bottom of the bale, 'negative' fig(A). That means that I painted the 'bale' colour around the grass and not the grass over the bale.
These old-fashoned bales are bound together with twine, so the surface is a little uneven - I've also tried to show that with light and dark brush strokes.
I started to paint the bales on dry paper with Yellow Ochre,
then before they dried completely, I painted a mixture of Burnt Sienna and Ultramarine Blue.
I especially like this mixture because the colours separate on the paper, giving a naural 'straw/hay' appearance to the 'bales'.
When painting the bales remember to keep the watercolour gradually lighter towards the top.
This allows you to show that they are round and gives you a chance to get a lot of depth,
against the dark trees.
Now relax and let the picture dry!
Next, 'the field'.
This is probably the most difficult part. How does one paint a field full of stubble?
I started by painting the areas in between the lines suggesting the perspective, with uneven areas of Yellow Ochre and a little Burnt Sienna. Notice again that the field is kept almost free of paint at the far end, under the trees - this
again gives plenty of depth to the picture. The darker areas and some stubble is painted with Burnt Sienna and Ultramarine Blue.
To underline the depth in the picture, I have painted the trees behind the bale to the right, the area within the circle, even darker!
The last thing to do is to paint the shadows.
The shadows tell one the time of day. Short shadows - around midday. Long shadows - afternoon or early evening. Hopefully one has remembered to show the shadows on the ground and those on the ends of the bales as coming from the 'same' sun!
I painted the shadows with pure Ultramarine Blue.
Remember, weak shadows suggest a cloudy day and strong shadows a sunny day.
So now the picture is finished. Mine looks like this....
Above are four sketches of possible perspectives. The first illustration a) is unusable. Here one is looking 'down' onto the field from a great height, the lines of harvested hay are completely paralel, the only things that can see a field like this are the birds flying over!
View b) is a little better - but it shows an infinately long field. The reason is that the vanishing point lies on the horizon.
In c) we have a shorter field. The vanishing point has come up over the horizon.
The perspective in this type of model, c) can be changed very easily, not by lifting or lowering the vanishing point, (c), (c1) but by keeping the vanishing point where it is and fanning out, or in, the vanishing lines!
Try it for yourself.
The perspective I have used in my painting is d). I have moved the vanishing point over to thr right. This allows me to show the bales a little bit from the side - had I used the perspective from c), I could only see the bales from the back - not quite so interesting!
Having sorted out the perspective, we can now get on with the painting but first we need a sketch!
Unless you really want to see the pencil lines through the paint, don't draw the sketch too strongly!
You can see that I haven't marked where the trees should be.
This is because I want to use a 'wet into wet' technique,
so it's no point in drawing trees knowing that I cannot be sure where the paint will stop.
The first thing to paint is the sky and while it is still wet, the trees.Start by wetting the sky area all the way down to the bales stopping at the field behind them, with clean water. Then paint the sky: Prussian blue at the top and Prussian blue mixed with a little Alizarin Crimson lower down. The 'clouds' appear by themselves if one doesn't brush the blue colour on too evenly.
The trees are painted onto the wet sky with different mixtures of Ultramatine Blue and Cadmium Yellow.
The trees 'grow' into the sky by themselves when wet green colour is painted onto a wet blue sky!
Next I painted the bales of straw. Only one, the largest in the front is painted with some detail,
the others are more or less suggested. Note how I have tried to show the bale standing 'in' the grass. I did that by painting the grass, at the bottom of the bale, 'negative' fig(A). That means that I painted the 'bale' colour around the grass and not the grass over the bale. These old-fashoned bales are bound together with twine, so the surface is a little uneven - I've also tried to show that with light and dark brush strokes.
I started to paint the bales on dry paper with Yellow Ochre, then before they dried completely, I painted a mixture of Burnt Sienna and Ultramarine Blue. I especially like this mixture because the colours separate on the paper, giving a naural 'straw/hay' appearance to the 'bales'.
When painting the bales remember to keep the watercolour gradually lighter towards the top. This allows you to show that they are round and gives you a chance to get a lot of depth, against the dark trees.
Now relax and let the picture dry!
Next, 'the field'.
This is probably the most difficult part. How does one paint a field full of stubble?
I started by painting the areas in between the lines suggesting the perspective, with uneven areas of Yellow Ochre and a little Burnt Sienna. Notice again that the field is kept almost free of paint at the far end, under the trees - this again gives plenty of depth to the picture. The darker areas and some stubble is painted with Burnt Sienna and Ultramarine Blue.
To underline the depth in the picture, I have painted the trees behind the bale to the right, the area within the circle, even darker!The last thing to do is to paint the shadows. The shadows tell one the time of day. Short shadows - around midday. Long shadows - afternoon or early evening. Hopefully one has remembered to show the shadows on the ground and those on the ends of the bales as coming from the 'same' sun! I painted the shadows with pure Ultramarine Blue. Remember, weak shadows suggest a cloudy day and strong shadows a sunny day.
So now the picture is finished. Mine looks like this....