Work In Progress, Glade Creek Grist Mill, Update 10

Work In Progress: Glade Creek Grist Mill, Update 10
Using the full scale drawing as a guide I first drew in the large shrub in front of the Mill. Then, I masked out some irregular splotches to indicate snow. When the masking fluid was dry I painted in the foliage of the evergreen shrub using a small round brush and a mix of hookers green, yellow ochre and winsor blue. I varied the mix to keep the mass from having a uniform color. After the shrub was painted in I removed the masking fluid.
Because the foreground hemlock blocks out part of the shrub mass, I painted in some rough shapes to indicate the fine needle foliage of the branches and painted in a few branches as well. The branches were painted in with burnt sienna, raw sienna and winsor blue, the hemlock foliage with hookers green, lemon yellow and a bit of winsor blue. I want to keep the foliage on the lighter side so that I don’t overwhelm the Mill with a huge dark mass. I’m depending on the dark tree trunk and branches to stop the viewer from running off the right side. However, I’m not 100% sure at this point about how dark to go on the foliage. I’ll have to wait and see when I get to that part.
Next, I started painting in some of the snow down below the Mill. There, I first washed in some very light tints of permanent rose and new gamboge in the sunlit spots. When dry, I started in with the shaded areas using winsor blue and, in the darkest areas, paynes gray. The tones were built up slowly by adding more and more layers of blue until I felt they were dark enough. I was careful to avoid getting any color on the tops of the masses where the sun was hitting them directly.
Moving toward the left I penciled in the distant shrubs just below the bridge and then painted them in with the green- blue mix mentioned before.
The big mass of shrubs below the bridge came next. The shrubs were first penciled in to get the general shape and contour. Then I used masking fluid to block out areas of snow. Using the green mix, I painted in the shrub mass. Once again, I varied the tone of the green by varying the colors, to give some form to the shrubs, indicating the dark shadows here and lighter leaves there. After the shrubs were painted in I removed the masking fluid and finished up edges here and there. Winsor blue and a bit of paynes gray were added to the snow to give them some three dimensional form.
At first I made the more forward part of the shrub mass a bit lighter than the mass further back – and wasn’t happy with it. I felt the whole mass needed the same tone, so I darkened the forward part more. That seemed to help. I also didn’t want too much green to show. Darkening the mass helped that, too. By adding more winsor blue and burnt sienna I was able to darken the mass sufficiently.
The deciduous, bare tree in front of the bridge was painted in with a combination of winsor blue, burnt sienna and raw umber, and using both a pointed round and a script brush to get the thin branches near the top.
Once finished, I felt the tree lacked real character but also had to tell myself that the tree was not the center of interest. One problem I have is treating each item that I paint as a special subject, needing special treatment. If I were to make the tree very interesting it would draw attention away from the Mill, which is, after all, the center of attention.

As I look at the painting at this point I have mixed feelings about how it is presented. Although the shrub mass and snow look realistic, I wonder if there should be less detail. Less detail in everything except the Mill. I had this same problem when working on the bare tree. I felt the tree needed to be more interesting. I think that was wrong. When involved in painting an object, I forget about everything else around it, and focus on making that object look real and detailed. I think it’s necessary, when developing the composition, to determine also what level of detail each area of the painting should get, and keep that in mind when progressing through it. If I put detail into everything, then everything becomes more important. Even though I’ve composed the painting to focus on the subject, I don’t want to draw attention away from that subject by having highly detailed objects all around it. So, I think, as you move away from the center of interest, I think the detail should also decrease. Otherwise, the painting gets way too busy. Everything should look realistic, but the detail should decrease. There needs to be a balance, however. I don’t want everything too out of focus compared to the subject. As I continue with this painting I’ll have to evaluate each element and decide whether to increase or decrease the detail. Everything relates to everything around it.
So much to think about.