I didn’t have a solid plan this week. I started by just wanting to continue work with my new colours. I painted these jellyfish based on this tutorial. These have a lot of different techniques I had to work with. For each part, I had to be really careful with the ratio of paint to water in my brush. Too much paint it wouldn’t have that airy feel that jellyfish have, too much water and the colours would blend together into a mess. If I were to do this one again, I would probably organize my colours a bit more before I started.

After painting my jellyfish I was itching to try painting some buildings again. I particularly wanted to try painting something that would challenge my ability to show perspective and depth.

To get a reference for this building, I used Google Maps. I picked a location free of any obstructions and traced out the vertical lines with a pencil. This was a practice not only in painting but also in drawing. I had to be careful that everything was proportional. This took a lot of trial and error, but once I had the lines down, I was able to fill in the colours and shading, which was what truly made it look like a building. I finished it off with the dark line work and some details on the bricks.

The last thing I painted was a tall Garry Oak tree. I turned my view around on Google Maps and found one on the quad to reference. This was the first time I used a real tree as a reference. I love how unique it is. It feels different from every other tree I’ve painted in the past. While out walking one day, I started noticing the colours of the trees around me. The yellow glow where the sun hits the leaves, the blue-green of the shadows, and most importantly, the grey of the trunks. Many trees, not all but many, have a washed mix of brown and grey for bark. By making the bark of my painted trees grey instead of brown, the painting feels less cartoonish. (On an unrelated but fun note: as I type this, I can see this exact tree out the window. Its leaves are gone, revealing the twisted branches unique to Garry Oaks).