Working from a photograph

We are asked to choose a photograph with plenty of space and either tall trees or distant mountains and, rather than accepting the composition of the photograph, to seek alternatives.

As my reference for this exercise, I have chosen three photographs taken last summer in Silverdale, North Lancashire, an area I know well having grown up there.  Silverdale is in an area of outstanding natural beauty, with limestone crags, woods and views looking out across Morecambe Bay.  I took these photographs on a sunny summer’s day while walking about the coast paths, overlooking the bay towards the hills of the Lake District. 

The main reference photograph is of three sheep in a field with long grass and trees on the edge of the crag overlooking the bay.  I chose this because of the interest of the sheep in the field, one of them looking directly at me, its shape emphasised by the contrast of the dark trees / shrubs behind.

My notes/thoughts from looking at this photo:

• Sheep as the focal point (contrast with trees/grass
• Main horizontal (grass line) too central, bisects the composition
• Too much grass in the foreground (move base line up?)
• Background – not expansive enough (other photos – strong horizontals; horizon, layers of sand, water, clouds, hills)
• Too many trees? Good strong diagonal but perhaps too solid – more of a view over bay
• Query re-arrange composition of sheep
• Shape of canvas – longer rectangle to emphasise horizontals?

I therefore also included two further photographs as references

The second is take from the same field, with the view turned further north to include the Lakeland hills and view over the sands with the Kent channel (one of the rivers than runs into the Bay) in the foreground.  Morecambe Bay is unusual in that the tide comes in around the outside of the Bay first, leaving the flat sands in the centre (hence the sirens which go off to warn of the incoming tide) so there is frequently water round the outside but not in the centre of the Bay.

The third photograph is taken from the Shore (can’t be called a beach because it is marsh grass, mud and stone!) looking out over the expanse of the bay with clear blue skies and fluffy clouds.

I drew an armature over my first photograph (moving the baseline up) to get an idea of the basic composition of the original photo.  As originally noted, the line of the trees roughly followed the main left-to-right diagonal, the grass line was now roughly on the 1/3 line with a horizontal on the sands forming the 2/3 line.

Working from this, I drew an armature onto an A4 sheet and then played with the composition, so the sheep looking at me was on the bisection of the vertical and horizontal 1/3 line (strongest tonal contrast with dark shrubs behind.  I also placed the horizon on the 2/3 line and the mid line of the clouds on the ¾ line.  Originally, I only had the two left-hand sheep but did include the third (again on the bisection of the 1/3 horizontal and 2/3 vertical) as I felt it improved the composition.  I wasn’t sure about the single tree on the 2/3 horizontal so drew the rest of the composition, photographed it and then drew the tree in.  I decided against including it because I think it closes in the view too much and blocks out the view over the Bay.

After drawing this, I decided to narrow the canvas slightly to make is accentuate the horizontals in the drawing.  I prepared my canvas by applying wide masking tape top and bottom, and applied a wash of bright pink/purple acrylic (mix violet/magenta), both to give a darker tone for the whites/pale blues to work against, and also to create an overall brightness.  I then drew in the main lines of the armature I had worked my composition to for accuracy but did not draw in any of the features.

Oil colours used were French Ultramarine, Prussian Blue, Lemon Yellow, Cadmium Red (Hue), Payne’s Grey and white.  A number of greens were mixed for the trees using Ultramarine and Prussian Blue, adding Lemon Yellow, White and an orange mixed from the Cadmium Red and Lemon Yellow to neutralise the brightest of the greens.

The grass shade was created by mixing the brightest green with the pale terracotta used for the sands.

I applied the majority of the paint with a palette knife to begin with to avoid becoming too fussy, working from my drawing rather than the photographs.  I used the photo as a colour reference (mainly for sands / grass) rather than for detail.  Once applied, I smoothed some of the paint with a large brush (mainly for the sands/water area) to give a smoother, more reflective surface.  The sheep were painted using white and the sand colour with a little blue for stronger shadow areas.

Painting after first session:

Obviously this will take quite a while to dry because of the thickness of the paint.  Reviewing this, I need to:

• Make sure the horizon line is straight – I think the problem here is not especially the horizon line, but that the distant hills are almost the same shade as the water, so I need to make the hills darker to delineate the space and make the horizon clear.
• White highlights need to be added to the water as a reflection – dry brush or possibly palette knife, making sure highlights on water areas not sand
• Add branches/tree trunks where view through tree
• Further colour / highlights on trees / shrubs when dry (plus adding few “spaces” in greenery – currently too solid.
• Think about shore area on far left – currently a bit nondescript, may have to define a bit, but will wait until other areas finished to see if it looks odd.
• Further details on sheep
• Very fine lines in grass?  Currently a bit bland.Think about colour on sands – possibly too prominent, darken sand / glaze over sheer blue?

Finished painting.  I decided against changing the foreground grass because I felt I would start getting too fiddly and overcomplicate it. 

In order to review we are asked:

In what ways did you depart from the photo? I departed from the main reference photo by widening the view and including details from other photographs to include more of the bay area, Lakeland hills and sky (sea / sky was quite non-descript in the original photo).  I also altered the composition by changing the treeline and moving the sheep to fit the composition.

Why did you make that choice?  I wanted to give the scene more of a sense of space and distance that would have been lacking if adhering strictly to the photograph.  Adding the Lakeland hills (which are, I think, slightly too dark and so need lightening) gives a sense that you are actually in a bay.

Did you produce a painting that satisfied you or were you over-influenced by the photo?  Once I had drawn my sketch, I used this for tonal values and composition, only referring to the photography for colour references (sand, sea and grass) and details of the form/shadows on the sheep.