Further progress on my painting of the Warming Hut

It's been a while since I've posted any progress reports about the latest painting that I've been working on. I've been working on it, sporadically for the last couple of weeks, for a couple of hours at a time.

My painting instructor, Dean, is away in Florence, teaching there for a month. While he's away, I've been trying to get into the habit of painting more at home, and on my own. Since I don't have any formal painting sessions with Dean, I haven't been posting the progress after each day. Since I was only painting a couple of hours at a time, I did take photos after each session, but didn't post because it was more frequent, and didn't seem as significant progress-wise.

It's funny, because now that I compare where I am now versus the last time I posted, I can see the transformation.

The last time I posted, I mentioned that I would be sending the latest photo to Dean for his feedback. (technology is so cool!)

Here's what he suggested:
Aim to get the line of the top of the hill on the left more varied from the line of the roof on the warming hut. Second, aim to get the look of the light hitting everything more consistent. The type of atmosphere is a bright sunny day at that moment, so capture that. There are crisp cast shadows on some of the figures in front. Can we see a crisp shadow under the eave of the warming hut, etc? Maybe a darker sky at the top will help too. The over all composition is reading well, now it's a matter of capturing the look of the light!

He also sent another email with a bit more instruction:

One more thing, when you squint, the bridge separates from the Marin headlands a little more in the reference, than in the painting. The headlands may want to go a little more blue in color and possibly lighter in value.

I made these corrections a couple of weeks ago, and have been working on it sporadically since then. I painted for a few hours yesterday, and see significant progress, so I figured it would be a good time to post again. The main changes that I've made over the last couple of weeks are:

The grassy area on the right and the hill. I added more paint to add more depth, darkened them, added more detail, and most significantly, added the large shadow on the right. I realized that it was just one big block of green space without a lot of interest. I took an element from my Dolores Street Painting that has a large shadow breaking up the street, and decided to add a shadow to the grassy area on the right to break it up a bit. I think it worked out well.

I added more detail to the Golden Gate Bridge (still needs more, including the cables).

I started adding vague figures in the background, mostly on the pier. I'll add more details today, but it already helps to have the idea and perspective of the figures in the background.

I started to add more detail to the figures in the foreground. One by one, I'm getting to them. The two in the front are almost done (that's Monica and Sharla!) and I've started on the next two (Zeze and Allison). I'll continue down the line - there are still four more figures to do.

I hope to paint more today and tomorrow to finish adding the details to the figures. I also want to work a bit on one of the background buildings - want to clean up the wall of windows by removing a few and simplifying it.

I'll probably send another photo to Dean for his feedback at the end of the day.


painting progress as of July 8, 2013


close of up the figures in the foreground