Steve Fleming

Artist Studio

Steve Fleming

In The Studio: Number 75 of 90 Paintings in 90 Days “Dockside”

The Artist In The Studio

Today’s painting is a lot of fun with lots of angles, light and interesting details and lines.  I tried to make it a lively job and to create some distinctive little shadow areas, notice the light areas of the pilings of the dock and the sunlit rocks.  Really look at the shadows and light areas, sketch them and see how they are all interesting little shapes, if you are having trouble seeing them squint your eyes and they will show up with more contrast.

Run a nice cool sky with cobalt, cerulean and ultramarine blue and add just a hint of cobalt violet to the mixture to give certain areas warmth.  The rocks are painted with a strong dark mixture of burnt sienna, ultramarine blue, alizirin crimson, and the occasional dab of olive green, scape the highlights with flat scraper, or the end of a beveled handled brush.  Make big positive marks not a collection of small little scratches.

Paint the shadows with a nice cool grey from cobalt blue, the orange of your choice, vary it with ultramarine blue, cobalt violet and burnt sienna.  After you run the shadow brush in some bounce light with raw sienna.

Paint the dock with downward brush marks using a round brush, really try to leave light areas.  This mix is a greyed brown of burnt sienna, ultramarine blue and the variety of alizirin and raw sienna.  Scrape some highlights with a flat blade sharp knife.

Paint in the water and the boats using a blue and some burnt sienna remember that this mix must be a cool blue but a little grey.

Put in details of windows and doors, try to keep these loose and lighter than you feel comfortable with you can always darken some details later.

close up detail of shadows, windows and the calligraphy on the dock.

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