Rittenhouse Watercolors

[SockmonkeyHolocaust]

p>Two pieces this weekend, which is doubly surprising. I must be getting faster. From the bench I was sitting on, I could see into the main square area of Rittenhouse Square and this girl was sitting on the end, people watching. This one was an exercise in simple sketching and trying to let the brush do the work. There are some glaring errors in it, but on the whole I like it.




This one was me sitting on a bench and looking at a couple across from me. I sketched it in about 10 minutes and then painted it the next day. My goals were to work on depth and blending, which I feel I made a minor achievement. Where I failed was in realizing how fantastically simple it would have been to do the background buildings by employing perspective and breaking down the simple shapes into, well, simple shapes. Dammit. oh well. Live and learn.

[DownSouth]

The first one is nice.  The second one is beautiful.

[Jessie]

You are really talented.

[Alice]

You're getting better every time!

[SockmonkeyHolocaust]

thanks everyone! I really appreciate it. I love painting pictures and sharing them with my friends, especially when they are of the city I love.

You're getting better every time!

For colors and depth, is it dark in front fade to light or the other way around?

[Alice]

Whatever is closest to you would be lighter, fading to darker as it moves farther away from you.

[SockmonkeyHolocaust]

Whatever is closest to you would be lighter, fading to darker as it moves farther away from you.

Ok, how would you fix the left side and give it a little more depth then? It seems to me that the dark trees are in front of the lighter tree branch.

[Alice]

Ok, how would you fix the left side and give it a little more depth then? It seems to me that the dark trees are in front of the lighter tree branch.

The problem with that area is more of the shape of the trees than the shading.  At the top of the light green trees (in the red box) the edge is more jagged.  Down at the bottom (the red circle) it becomes more of a fluid line - which matches the lines in the trees farther away. 



This gives it the appearance that the farther away trees are in front of the front foliage - because it looks like it's covering up the jagged lines of the front tree.  Does that make sense? 

This is as good as I could change it to show you what I meant in Paint, sorry.

[SockmonkeyHolocaust]

It works for me, thanks!