Process

Finally. Yes Finally it is.. After a lot of coaxing by many of you I have finally managed to capture the WIP pictures of one of my works. And I am very happy to be sharing my process with you. When I say process it does not mean I follow the same process for every painting. Every painting is different and hence how it will be reached will be different. So the process that I am sharing applies to this painting only. 

This is the picture of the place. A quiet place with an imposing structure of a Hindu temple. A lovely atmosphere to paint in.

I usually do a few thumbnails and quick tonal studies before doing a painting. Here I just did sketching for about 10-15 minutes to get a feel of the place. I did not do any tonal studies as the idea was more or less clear in my head.

In the first age after initial drawing I went in for a warm under wash. Saw hints of  blues and reds in the foreground . So let some blues and reds mingle in in the foreground yellow ochre wash. I also distorted the perspective of the temple quiet a bit. This was done because I was predicting stiffness in the final outcome. So decided to play with the structure a little. Gave it a little 'gesture'.

In the second and most important stage I did a tonal block in of the major shapes. Transparent washes were used to block in. Note that I have made the color spire of the temple similar to the color of the temple. Otherwise I thought it would cause an unnecessary creation of a shape and clutter the painting. I wanted the temple to be a single shape. 

Now details on the wall of the temple have been done with dry brush technique. Note that there is much less detail in the back walls of the structure. 

Here figures have been added to complete the painting.

Back at home when I evaluated it I thought the figure was of same tone as the temple. So I darkened the figure. Also added the background tree on the top left corner. This foliage along with the figure maintains the green color throughout the painting, hence causing balance. The green color also compensates for the red of the temple as green and red are complementary to each other.

Plein air at Gada Khorda - 21 Dec 2013

10 x 14 inch

Thank you for viewing. I hope this is useful to some of you.

Have a happy Christmas and a great 2015.