Finally done with my entry for the St. Augustine Art Association Members Art Show. Whew, that was a mouthful!  Anyway, I took pictures as I progressed through the painting because I wanted to use it as a teaching tool.
     This is a 16x20 painting done in acrylics.  It is of a big tourist spot in St. Augustine.  A beautiful old home with a famous and very beautiful gate entry.  I was out taking pictures one day, and snapped a photo of the home and gate.  As I turned to leave, I heard the clip-clop of a horse and buggy coming so I turned around to snap a pic of the buggy.  When I was deciding what to paint for the art show, I went with the house and the buggy.
     When painting, depth of field is very important, especially in landscape painting.  This can only be truly and effectively achieved by under painting in a dark color.  I didn't think to show this painting at the beginning, but better late than never, right?  So in the first photo here the top half is well on its way to being done.  But the bottom half is in the under painting stage as well as the greenery to the left of the house.  These are the darker colors of my actual trees, street, etc.  When covering the under

painting with next step, a lighter color, or highlight, NEVER cover the entire area or the depth is lost.  The next picture shows what I mean by that.
     In this picture you can see that I added highlights to the greenery.  I mixed the base color, Hookers green deep with Hookers green med, plus gesso or white, making the next highlight a couple shades lighter.  Then I waited a few minutes for it to dry. {I actually work on another area} then go back over again each time a couple shades lighter.  Always remember, acrylics dry darker!!!  So you have to go over your painting often with lighter and lighter colors!  You learn to get very bold in your color choices because they DO dry darker.  It may seem WAY TOO BRIGHT, but then they dry to just the right color.
     Then I moved on to the street. I decided to make it a dirt road instead of pavement.  I drew in the horse and buggy with charcoal because it is easy to remove.

     It gets tricky when you are using white!  I would never suggest having a white horse and a white buggy to someone new to painting.  White can get very "chalky" so I would recommend another color.  I wanted them as the name I chose is "Top Hat and Tails".  There were actually two drivers on this buggy.  I painted only one. Otherwise they are just as I photographed.  I also changed the front legs on the horse.  I didn't like his leg position in the photo.  I take photos of my work as I go along.  it helps me see flaws.  ( You can also turn the canvas upside down or look at it in a mirror.  Don't know why it works, it just does)  I saw that the 3 front windows were not lined up correctly.  Out of perspective, so I had to lengthen them.  But, after 2 weeks of work, I finally finished at midnight last nite!  Varnished this morning, mounted in frame at noon, and had to the show by 2pm!!
"Top Hat and Tails"



  

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