Cinque Terre Sunset - FINAL EPISODE

I'm calling this complete.  After bringing my canvas home from Uma's house, I've re-worked much of the painting.  I didn't think I would spend so much more time on this, but I was not totally happy with the painting overall.  I was struggling with the clouds, trying to get them to look wind swept like they were in the reference photo.  I searched You Tube for a "how to" video on painting wispy clouds.  Abundant videos popped up on painting clouds, and as I started scrolling through the list, there was my teacher, David Jansen, with a very thorough cloud painting DVD that he had posted to You Tube.  After watching the entire DVD (over 2 hours), I took to heart some of the things he said in the video.  This is why I so enjoy taking lessons from David.  He gives solid advice and artistic principles.  I looked again at my painting and knew that I had to decide what the real story of this painting is - the sunset or the village, but not both.  Because the sunset and its reflection on the water are so warm and bright and intense, I decided to make it the focal point of the painting, and subdue the buildings somewhat.  I had already left out many of the details from the buildings because it complicated the scene, and the more I added, the more crooked things looked.  David's video had wonderful instructions on how to paint wispy clouds, so I went back to the easel and re-painted the sky.  I am now much happier with it.

The water was also not quite right.  The slant I had going on the direction the water was flowing was too steep.  I completely painted out the water with tones of orange and started again, taking care to get the angle correct this time.  I spent much time adding several shades of orange and several shades of blue violet in small strokes.  I added glazes of Diarylide Yellow and Indian Yellow to get the glow of the sun on the water.

Next, I washed a thin glaze of blue violet over all the buildings to tone and cool them.  Since the sun is setting, the buildings would be dimly lit, unless the sunset was casting its coral glow on them.  I repainted some of the windows with yellow to look like lights were on, rather than leaving them all dark.  I repainted all the roof tops to a cooler version of blue violet (unless the roofs were red).  I repainted all the buildings in the very lower left as they were just took dark the way they were.  

I reworked all the rocks to create more interest.  Finally, I brushed some orange glow onto all elements in the painting.  I finally feel that the painting is harmonized largely by using a contrast of blue violet with orange.

This project has been a very long one, but such a learning experience.  I hope you have enjoyed my long journey to completion.

Stay tuned as Uma and I embark on a new painting.  This time we will do a portrait on 12 x 16 canvas.  Uma chose the Afghanistan girl who was on the cover of the National Geographic Magazine a number of years ago.