Thanks to Tom and Jin for inspiration!
Those covered bridges is something unique for some countries I think as there is nothing like this in Russia or at least I have not seen it. I had to google to improve my knowledge on real things. I found few photos with cloudy day and I tuned up redness of the color in my painting as I liked red on gray.
Tom, as I said I had to change composition, but I wanted to save cloudy day mood.
Jin, thanks for guiding me to the great idea to paint upside down. It gave me some new experience and allowed to focus more on value, while I was doing this weird experiment.
This is A4, canvas on the panel.
Painted upside down for 95%. However, I did sketch on a paper a day before that I did in normal way, but before painting anything on the canvas I turned it upside down too.
Challenge as I saw was the river as it did not want to flow upside down.
When I turned it into normal orientation I was surprised it looked better than I was imagining. Even the river was fine. So last 5% to put extra shadow around barn and right bank of the river was done in a normal way. Plus couple of the touches on the path.
It is way more challenging to do small canvas. I used my all small brushes. Even the ones I use for sketching only, the bold ones. Pallet knife on panel is strange as it does not want to give paint back nicely.
It was a nice challenge and learning!
You are so right Tom. Perspective here was a challenge. I usually sketch it with the very thin paint right away on the canvas (example in one of my articles). But with this one when I started applying colors I missed a bit here and there, of course, I was trying to fix it here and there, but... did not work as well as I wanted. Also that wonderful red is not easy to cover with snow as it makes snow pink :) Of course there should be some pinkish tones near the barn, that what gives me a bit of excuse. :)
Oh by the way, I forgot to mention that I did under painting first not to loose much of the perspective. I did it couple of tones darker to build on it lighter and brighter colors.
Thanks for sharing about these bridges. I'd love to see one in real life.
David, thanks a lot for your cheers and kind words. Only one rule about snow: It is never just white. But you will use a lot of white color for winter painting, so, get enough before you start. Go for winter scenes for sure, it will be interesting experience and learning curve. I am sure you will succeed!
Very nice work, cloudy sky feels good, especially as Tom said the color of covered bridge you chose is wonderful and the bridge is firmly represented as the leading role. The texture of the snow is also wonderful, and it is a masterpiece that was well made overall. I feel that it was better to have a gentle slope on the bridge, although it is only a little. To be honest, I'm really surprised that you absorbed a lot of things in a short period of time and created a truly wonderful work.
Quite a daring and successful challenge Sunnylady, painting this upside down?? WAW!!
Result is REALLY stunning! Makes me want to try such bridge as well.
In my country, such bridge cannot be found. I know of one (passenger and bike bridge only) on the border with Germany and Switzerland (near Bazel) and that's the only European one that I know. I'v seen some in USA but unfortunately …. never drove through one!
Happy painting dear! :) :)
Hey Tom, been so many times in Austria but never spotted one of those beauties.
Meanwhile I cam up with the name and link of the one I mentioned on the German-Swiss border. It's the Holzbrücke in BadSäckingen.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holzbr%C3%BCcke_Bad_S%C3%A4ckingen#/media/File:Holzbrücke_Bad_Säckingen_↔_Stein_AG,_Schweizer_Seite_2012.JPG
Wikipedia really has an article for everything. "Covered Bridges in Austria" :D
Nice work on the snow, Sunnylady!
Jin, yes, I was a bit resisting to make it very short, but also I wanted to show him as main character here. That was the reason why i put vanishing point just on the edge of the canvas on the left. I think it could be a bit too close as you pointed out. While i was sketching (upside down) I did not like when it was more squared. That's why there is distortion as it is too close to the vanishing point.
I got it. Perhaps if you thought the composition enough when actually drawing, so you may be the correct answer. It's not uncommon to deform to get the main character.
Voy, thanks a lot! Thanks for sharing link to the bridge too.
Of course try the bridge it is tricky, but I am sure you'll nail it. Just little advice if you decide to proceed. Take a piece of paper grid it to few rectangulars and sketch with pencil few different compositions to select one you like. Then do bigger rectangle to match proportions of the canvas and draw it with the ruler to build it with 2-point perspective. If you want you can color it with pencils or markers. This will be super helpful for transitioning it to the big canvas. Don't freak out of my long description, as Tom said it was challenging with perspective. I totally agree with him.
Felix, thanks, It was my second winter painting that I managed to finish. When I look at it I remember that painting of yours in my memory which you did with pallet knife.
Jin, thanks for your wonderful tips and for the article about perspective. It made me to revisit my drawing in perspective and even practice drawing circles in perspective.
Looks great Sunnylady! I like that your perspective gives us a look inside the bridge. I have not tried a covered bridge yet. Might have to put that on my To Do list.
Bobby thanks. I looked at the original from Bob in season 19 and thought it will be great to create some inner space.
This is really beautiful work. Your angles and perspective are great! I live in Quebec, Canada and we have a lot of old covered bridges here and there. Awesome job!
Thank you lightsnow.
Can you tell why they are covered? What is the reason?
Do all of them have stone basement?
Are they normally installed on the wide rivers?
This is a beautiful painting of a covered bridge. I’m interested in this upside down technique!
Absolutely gorgeous!! Love the colors, love the scaling, your tree work is exceptional. The composition brings it all together but what a great way to limit the color on your pallet to highlight the cabin and keep the attention on it. The eye is drawn to it. Extraordinary job!!!
I think it's to protect it from the weather. In Quebec, our weather year-round is really variable. It can rise to 40C in the summer with 100% humidity and it can go as low as -40C in the winter. From what I remember of the ones I've seen, they're usually propped up on stone bases and are over rivers, not all of them wide. Great work once again!
@Lzicchinella: go for it. In addition to value control it gives interesting psychological effect as well. I cannot recognize painting is done by me 100% in the normal orientation and I think looking at it - "someone did quite a nice job". I did not have chance yet to see what the brain reaction is going to be when I rotate it upside down.
@MHK: Thank you very much! I think it fits quite well in the picture as that background and snow has little purple tint made of that ultramarine blue and reds I used for the bridge.
For the trees: I did pencil study couple of weeks ago while trees still were half naked to understand the structure. Normally my brunches look like snakes so I decided to be more present in the moment when i worked on the trees. I think upside down orientation helped as well as hand slides more easier downwards than upwards.
@Bobby703: Tom's bridge was inspiring with all the details he wonderfully put in place and also Wayne Coley Art painting of winter barn put a thought that it would be nice to create inner space of the structure.
@lightsnow: Very interesting as Russia has the same climate but somehow people did not come up with idea of covered bridges through the rivers. That is why i cannot get the reason to cover it when it works uncovered. Thus all my questions about these very interesting structures. If you don't mind more questions:
May be it is part of history in Canada? Do people walk a lot in Canada to cross the bridges on foot? Do you have floods in spring time when snow melts? How do the bridges survive spring floods?
Historically in Russia when slavery was still there everything except churches was built from the wood. Only Capitals had stone structures for the monarchs. I also think that may be there are some similar bridges in some certain regions but to find them one needs to go far away from big cities to the country side, which I never had an opportunity.
Hi Sunnylady...OMG.. I still can't get over how you did this one upside down . the distance created in the bridge is awesome! Its really great. This must have been a real challenge and learning experience too. Just terrific.
LJM, it took me somewhat between 2-3 hours. Which is quite long for such a small size.
Learning curve:
1)No matter how you paint if you build according to perspective. Perspective works even upside down.
2)Sketch is needed to refine composition before going to the canvas. So I plan to do little doodle before touching canvas.
3)I feel more brave to experiment with things.
I had long weekend 4 days: out of 4 days I painted 3 days and 3rd time was quite exhausting. I think I took quite a Project which turns to be above my level and I struggle. (seascape of famous Russian artist - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_Aivazovsky#/media/File:Hovhannes_Aivazovsky_-_The_Ninth_Wave_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg )
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sunny lady that's perfect snow, love the cabin .. I love it.. great job .. I really want to try snow at some point .... thank you for sharing happy painting ...