September 2019 - Pitlochry Painting

The main project I did in September was a painting of a family cottage near Pitlochry.

(Ok, so with a little artistic licence, I used the weather/colours from the first pic but the composition etc from the second pic... I also turned the house in the background into a tree...)

I planned to do this on a canvas board but unfortunately I got the angles/perspective wrong so I started again on high quality watercolour paper. The painting itself was about A3 in size.

Anyone who knows me knows I struggle to accurately draw buildings - so this project was definitely a challenge! Since I was working from a photo, I decided to use a projector to help me to accurately transfer the image onto the paper.

After the sketch stage, I slowly and carefully added colour to each section making sure each one was completely dry before moving on to the next one to prevent the colours bleeding. I started on the sky and gradually worked my way down the painting.

  

Before moving on to the next section, I added some more detail to the roof and chimneys. I then did the brickwork, sun-lounge, porch and some of the bushes/climbing plants before doing the gravel part of the drive, and the garden.

 

I then moved on to the brick part of the driveway and I did actually take photos as I did it, however the photo after I added the water... was blurred! I think the lens on my phone camera must have been dirty and I didn't think to check the photos or try to find out why it was blurred before moving on.... silly me! Anyway this is the photo before I added the water...

And this is the photo after I had fine-lined everything (except the background trees) and basically finished the painting...

I'm really happy with this painting and I would like to do similar ones of some other family homes but first I need to find reference photos I want to use!

This painting was actually a present so when it was finished, we got a frame for it and I think it really finishes it off nicely. (I apologize for the bad lighting.)

Even though it was a bit of a rough start, I really enjoyed doing this painting. In a way, it was quite nice to look so closely at the details of this cottage, which usually get taken for granted.

As always, any feedback is appreciated so please leave a comment below...