Part B

Once I had decided to choose landscapes as the skill I want to improve on, I researched landscape artists that I can take inspiration from. An artist I was particularly interested in was Cat Croxford, who I met while in Henley for my part D. I decided to use her style of work for my final piece. Before I could start work on my final piece though, I needed to do some media tests, to understand how to paint in this way.

I first did a small set of media tests, which were copies of small sections of Cat’s paintings. I did these on black paper, as I was advised by Cat to work on a black surface. I think that these could be improved as I did not use a square brush, therefore not having the correct shape stroke.

I then did a set of paintings on paper that had been painted black with larger sections of Cat’s paintings:

This was the first piece that I did on a canvas board. I wanted to use more vibrant colours, so I chose this painting by Cat Croxford as a reference. I also decided to work around the trees, instead of painting them over the top. I did this to give the trees the correct shape. I started with the background, which had more blended squares. I achieved this by mixing tones while doing the brushstrokes, not the more distinct method of mixing them in a palette and then applying, which I would do for the trees and the bushes in the foreground. I think this painting has gone well, but I would use a smaller square brush for this next time, but since I will be working on a larger canvas for my final piece it should not be a problem. Working on a larger canvas would also mean that more subtle blending can improve, such as the blending I did in the sky in this piece.

My Final Piece

To start with, I looked at all the media testing I had done and chose a reference photo for my final piece. I decided to go with Change of Colours, because it has a lot of bright colours, and has a good balance of trees and foliage.

Firstly, I traced the trees onto a black canvas, in order to know the positions of the foliage in relation to the trees, as I have done in previous media tests. I then started with the bottom of the image. I used a bigger square brush for this, to get more coverage. Although, as I continued painting, I decided to use the smaller square brush, in order to get more detail.

For the trees, I used a small round brush and used the technique of dry brushing for the lighter parts of the tree. This is a technique I tried out in my other media tests, and I think it is effective in achieving definition in the trees. The most difficult part of painting the trees was to stay in the outline, and not change the width of the tree in unusual places.

A problem I faced while painting this final piece is that sometimes during painting, there was not enough paint on my brush, meaning that the texture of the canvas came through too much and the square brush marks were not solid. Going over the square with the same dry brush would still bring out the canvas texture, so I decided to go over most sections after they had dried.

The thing that I am most happy with is the sky. I had trouble with painting the sky in the past and making it look like the sky could be seen through the leaves of the tallest trees, but I think that I have achieved that in my final piece.

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