Eliot's Art Blog

This is a recap of the eighteenth day of my self-made artist residency.

For day 18, I only had a half day planned so I hoped to work on a 6×8 study in the Diablo Foothills again. I had so much fun when I was there on Day 2 that I wanted to see what it would be like under different lighting conditions.

Diablo Foothills Regional Park

The day was cloudy but there were little bits of sun shining through. I was hopeful that there would be some interesting light/shadow patterns on the mountain. When I arrived at the park, I was excited by what I saw:

It’s not as clear in the photo (this is why painting outside is so useful), but the contrast of the part of the hillside in light vs the part in darkness was really striking.

One of the challenges of working outside (and especially in partly cloudy weather) is changing light. Every time a cloud blocked the suns view of the mountain or allowed a different amount of light through, the subject changed dramatically. Take a look at the difference in these photos:

Not only do the light and shadow patterns change dramatically, but the color green that the grass is changes as well. I attempted to choose a point in time I liked and replicate that, but it proved very challenging and this is something I will continue to focus on.

Here is the small study I ended up with:

While it’s certainly not a finished painting, I learned a lot about changing light and I managed to record a point in time that I could use in a larger studio painting if desired.