We seem to have lots of these little churches in our county. This one is in old mining town named Johnsville. It is used by the historical society these days and is only open for special functions. I had a lot of trouble with perspective on this one as I was sitting below it looking up, so one of these days I’ll try it again.
TerryLChristo 9:10 am on August 25, 2009 | #
Rose,
I love it, and the looking up angle just makes it interesting. Home portraits are what I do, and perspective is always tricky,
Your style is so great, thanks for the ideas. I have been thinking for some time that I should do a book of ink and watercolor paintings of the old churches in my area with a brief history, you have motivated me to reconsider.
roseindigo 9:15 am on August 25, 2009 | #
Terry, thanks so much for your comments. Yes, I’ve been thinking the same thing—doing a series of the small country churches in our area. I’m not great with buildings, but it could be a wonderful learning experience. If you decide to do this, please show us your work as you go along.
Perspective is very tricky, but sometimes I think when an artist doesn’t get it quite right it makes the painting look less architectural and the picture has its own charm, so I don’t mind. Still, it’s a subject I need to delve into more.
I hope you do paint the old churches in your area, and I hope you share some of them here.
KirbysArt 9:17 am on August 25, 2009 | #
Well done Rose. I like your style.
Terry that sounds like a very good idea.
~Kirby
TerryLChristo 9:28 am on August 25, 2009 | #
Rose,
After reading a number of art books, and the techniques of many great artists i put aside my guilt and for the perspective trace the basic lines and transfer them.
I dont do this when sketching on the spot, usually just free with pen, at times a faint pencil horizon line.
Check my blog at http://www.terrylchristo.spaces.live.com to see some of the home protraits.
Boulgakow 1:15 pm on August 25, 2009 | #
Great, Rose, super atmosphère, I like the red-woods and bush, the purple church is a real good subject, don’ worry about the perspective, we don’t need to draw exact lines, the feeling is most important and here it is in your painting !!! Thanks for your words about my last submission.
trebor61 3:22 am on August 26, 2009 | #
Agree with Pascal. Draw what you see and don’t worry about the perspective. When teaching this topic, in my previous life, the mistake the kids always made was to overdo parts like recession towards vanishing points etc. I used to tell them to make further away parts very, very smaller than closer ones to avoid them getting those awkward looking diagrams which come from assuming the VP is at the edge of the page and not five miles away (not that you have done this he hastily added). It was almost like teaching the technical rules of perspective then un-teaching them. In technical jargon there are many procedures for perspective, proportion, curves whatever. Since starting to paint I’ve found that, if I try these, it just “don’t work”. Stick with your feeling for the drawing. Your wonderful wee church gets the correct atmosphere across.
trebor61 3:29 am on August 26, 2009 | #
PS About “feeling”, which comes from the ability to observe, you have done this admirably. I assume that your horizon is roughly at the middle of the door and running across the tops of some of the bushes. We had to instruct our students to make sure everything above and underneath would be in shadow and below liable to catch light. You could go through a drawing and painstakingly mark each part for blocking in (light/dark) and some youngsters felt they had to do this. Your natural ability shows the underside of the eaves in shadow with the tops of the forward bushes catching the sun. I bet you didn’t have to think about this before adding these details to you canvas.