This is a painting I did last night at the School of Visual Arts. I chose to copy a photograph of an autumnal scene, showing the refections of trees in a clear blue lake. I began with a quick burnt sienna acrylic underpainting, lightly applied to allow the luminosity of the underlying canvas to show through. I then roughly sketched with brush the outlines of the trees and lake in burnt umber oil, using walnut oil as medium. I forwent the next phase of developing darks and lights in burnt umber, and instead went directly to color. After the first color was applied , I felt I had gone too thick , and I scraped the entire painting down with a palette knife. This created a most beautiful glowing underpainting. I then retouched the sky and lake, painting the sky lighter and the lake a deeper blue. I added in touches of reds and yellows to capture the effects of light. I added light yellows and oranges and reds to the trees, but centrally made them darker to create shadow and depth. Lastly, I added a few semblances of trunks and branches with a fine sable brush. Lucy, our teacher, liked it and said it was complete. She also said that I have my own style, which reflects my personality.
