


I took this picture along a path I use almost daily. Although I have loved drawing and painting since I was a child, I've only recently started drawing more frequently. I have used watercolour to do colour washes over pen drawings, but want to do more. I am struggling to find a good way to practice. There are lots of inspiring scenes around my home near Brussels, but I get overwhelmed by the sheer amount of things I have to think of when planning a watercolour painting. I would welcome tips on how to organize practice. Can you practice seperate bits and then put them together in a finished painting?
I agree with the comments in general. It is a fine work and shows your talent. I like the white lines used in the fence and grass. I would consider simplifying it. You are including all the fenceposts and it feels busy. Also the trees hanging in from the front lose the depth that is seen on the more far away trees in the upper left hand corner.
I think it looks great, skewed or not. I don't mind the poles either. Just looking at the painting, and if it was mine, I would like to improve the rendering of the fine branches and twigs of the tree in teh foreground. I would try a dryer brush, but I realise how difficult this is. When comparing with the reference photo, I would tend to add blue, both in the sky and on the snow in teh foreground, because I find it so beautful, and it doesn't come though as clearly in the painting. Nothing to worry about, great painting.
Suggestions how to practice? If you get overwhelmed by detail, try to zoom in. that reduces detail a lot. For example the shed, the fence the fields and the trees in the distance, would have been a great subject in itself. Less poles and less foreground branches would make things easer too. Another suggestion is to regularly making water colour sketches, from day-to-day subjects around you. view from teh window, your dog, a mug, a picture from the newspaper, whatever. No real objective, no pressure, just relaxing with paint for half an hour. I don't do it enough, but I'm getting better at it. Good luck!
This is a very nice piece of work, your drawing and painting skills are impressive for someone who has not painted for some time.
I do agree with Edo about the composition, being able to change things in a picture is were we score over photographers! I can understand your difficulty in not wanting to change landscapes that you are familiar with. Most of my subjects I find within a couple of kilometres of my home, and I used to resist changing things, but with practice and time I now move and change objects. Maybe what helps is how I work, which is to find a subject, sketch it, maybe take photos, then I may do nothing with it for months, then using my sketches, I make more sketches until I am happy with things.
Sorry this is so long, keep on painting and posting more of your work.
I realize the composition is skewed, and after your advice considered how to adapt it. The problem is I know this place very well and love it, and correcting it to have a more balanced composition feels wrong somehow, like leaving out an "ugly" mole on the portrait of a loved one. Plus, opening the fence will allow my eyes to travel into the meadow, but also allow the cows to venture out! I do have some pictures from a different viewpoint and I will try those for a better composition. That would be like making a portrait from the right so that the mole on the left remains invisible. I might even open the fence, because there are no cows in the meadow now. But we'll have to fix it before springtime! Thanks for your advice!
I can totally understand your concerns. If you haven't painted for a long time and start again, you are at a bit of a loss as to what to concentrate on. There's too much to consider: Light, shadow, depth, amount of detail... But sometimes I also find it quite inhibiting to want to plan everything exactly, although of course it doesn't work without that. But when I look at some of my earlier paintings (before a years-long break from painting), at a time when I painted more intuitively, I find that some of these paintings are ‘fresher’.
I often practise objects ‘separately’: only sky, or only grasses. And the tips from artists like Oliver or Edo are very helpful to get an idea of which parts of the picture should be given more attention in a harmonious composition. In any case, don't give up. Watercolour is such a beautiful hobby (or work).
Ofcourse you can do that.
When I get a commission, and the buyer wants a boat, a bridge, a farm and behind that farm a windmill. Ah and a pollard willow in the front. You can look for it somewhere. But you have to invent it by putting things together.
About your sketch, it is good, really good. But there are design errors.
I know the fence is there. But it stops you to look behind it. And even worse that the path left race you out the sketch.
There is no path for te eye to travel throughout the painting.
Maybe the row of poles did have to start halfway the left fence. Then you create a path to the building.
But your skills to paint are great.