I like good shadows in a painting. I've seen them done several ways and some handle them really well. I really don't put much work into shadows and figured I needed to work on them more. This sketch was painted today in about 50 minutes...not bad for a 12"x16". Years ago it would have taken me a week to paint this scene at this size. One thing I appreciate about painting regularly is getting faster at it. Faster of course doesn't mean better so no my head is still being kept in check thanks to my vision.
I see things in this painting that need work and some areas that I like. I don't usually use purple as shadow as much as I use Ultramarine blue but why not work on something else. I like the purple ( violet ) and like going from dark intense purple to the more faded as it heads into the light. I guess I could use Dioxanine purple but I like mixing them with my primaries....sort of like stretching your own canvas or making your own frames...haha. I've been working pretty large lately so going down to this size gave me a feeling of trying to jam what I wanted into the scene. Need to get used to small again. I'll keep doing more of these sketches to work things out....pretty fun.
