"Hunter Gatherer of Light and Color" Part 1: Values

When I am out plein air painting I consider myself a "hunter gatherer". I am looking for bits of information, value relationships, light, color etc.. I "hunt" these things and I "gather" them.
In this post I will talk about gathering of values.

These images are from a painting trip to Maine that I took with some friends. I actually got a lot of painting done which is good, because I don't like to leave my family and travel thousands of miles to come home empty handed. It was my first time painting in Maine and it really took me out of my comfort zone of painting blue sky and things that, for the most part, don't move. Some days I got up to six paintings done. Other days did not yield as many, but I feel that even on the frustrating days I came away with something useful.

I will try not to ramble on here, I hope that these sketches speak for themselves, but I will try and give brief descriptions of why I am choosing these particular sketches to share with you.



"Misty Maine Sketch", 11" x 14" oil on linen, 2006

The weather was changing constantly it seemed. In this painting all I had time to get down were the basic value relationships of the main shapes. Then the sun came out and completely changed everything. By going for the important stuff first and not getting caught up in the details right off I got some solid relationships down and even though it is an "unfinished" painting I think that it stands on its own and is actually a nice piece. It gives a little insight into how I start a painting.
Since the light changed drastically, I set this one aside and started on another painting. To keep working on a painting when the light has changed so much would be a mistake.

Two of the most frustrating things about this trip turned out to be two of the best learning experiences of the trip. Here is what I mean.
#1 Boats move. Even when they are moored the turn and shift, especially on windy days.
#2 Maine lobster boats have a unique shape, their lines are not the same as other boats, and I needed to learn this.



Pencil Sketch #1

I don't do that many pencil sketches before I start a plein air painting. I am usually too caught up in the moment and want to get right to it. However, these boats were giving me trouble. Boats turning on their moorings and the changing light of partly cloudy days was getting me frustrated. At times I just had to take a step back and do some pencil sketches. I was trying to capture the lines of these boats in simple sketches of three or four values. On the left are three views of the same boat turning. On the right are also three views of one work skiff. I drew what I could and when the profile changed I moved on to the next sketch. These were just a few seconds each. I tried to get the basic shape down and added some values when I had time.



Pencil Sketch #2

Here are some more drawings done very quickly. In a few of them you can see how I adjusted my original lines. There was a man who rowed a boat out to the work skiff to turn on the water pump. In the drawing in the middle you can see the boat alongside the skiff. In the drawing on the right he is talking on his cell phone. These are just quick gestures, but valuable nuggets of information for future paintings.



Pencil Sketch #3

Here are some more examples of working quickly and hunting and gathering of values. It is not the details that were important to me but the relationship of a value compared to the values around it. Most of these have just been three or four values. The white of the paper being one, then a light gray, a medium and a dark. Look at the sketch at the top left. There is not a lot of "drawing" of the boat. It is really just a collection of shapes of different values. When these spots are put together in the right place it reads as the little boat against the dock.

I hope that some of you found this interesting. I'll talk about other things that I hunt and gather when I am out plein air painting in a future post.

"Second Wind"

It was one of those frustrating days that plein air painters sometimes have. We had staked out our location the evening before and returned the next morning ready to go. McLoon's Wharf in Spruce Head, is classic Maine, a few little red shacks where lobster boats unload their catch and lots of colorful fishing boats moored in the little harbor. I had visions all these great paintings that I was going to do in my mind. In fact, it was hard to decide which one of these masterpieces I was going to paint first. I settled my sights on one of the red shacks, pier, boat, some water, sprig of land in the background. I was going to get it all.
Well that didn't work, and that is how I got that nice toned canvas on "Second Wind".


"Second Wind", 8"x 10" oil on linen, 2006. Private Collection


I realized that my first try of the day was a failed painting after about ten minutes. Maybe five, but I kept hoping for the best for the other five. The positive side here is that I recognized that it was bad from the start and that no amount of picking at it was going to change that. So, I wiped it down and regrouped.
I went for a simpler composition. Instead of trying to get all of Maine into my 8"x 10" painting, I went for one lobster boat that had just pulled in to unload some traps, and just a slice of the pier. It was an old wooden boat, a classic, the kind with the sail in the back. I went at it with gusto after having loosened up with the first try. I blocked in all of the important stuff, got the lines of the boat down, added some pilings of the pier and the little boat that was tied up behind it. Then I worked the reflection of the sky in the water down along the right side.
O.K., now it was time for all the details. Or not, the owner of the boat walked over to have a look. "That's real nice" he said, "you got the shape down just right with so little. Looks just like her. Sorry to tell you this, but I gotta move the boat." I had about three minutes before he got back down into his boat and pulled out. I double checked a few shapes and made sure I had that bow line right and off he went.
I ended up being real happy with the result. I had captured just the important stuff, a good color harmony, and not a lot of fluff that may or may not have added to the piece. I hadn't had time to fuss over it and mess up all the good painting I had done in about fifteen or maybe twenty minutes. The name of the boat was "Second Wind" and I had gotten mine.

That High didn't last long. The rest of the morning continued to frustrate me. I walked around a lot. Checked out my buddies' paintings, snapped some photos. I Really could not decide what to paint next. Have you ever had that feeling? So I decided to do some pencil sketching. Some of them came out pretty nicely. Here are a few pages from my little sketch book. They are loose, just little value studies. I tried to get the gesture of the working men down and the lines of the lobster boats. I don't get to see many of those in Mexico. It really was a pretty good morning after all.