I didn't go to copy last Tuesday, because the temperature in the morning was in the single digits, and snow and ice were still on the ground. What a difference a week makes! Today's temps climbed into the 60s, and it was a pleasure to walk to the Metro in the afternoon with my jacket off.
Tiny bits of progress - here is how the painting looked as I stopped for lunch. I worked over the sky again, glazing more yellow over the middle area, although you can't tell from this photo. I also put a head on the boy. I worked on the middle-ground trees on the left, but now they look too blue. I will adjust the color next week. A tiny bit more of the big tree has appeared. I painted over the small tree in the field, because I need to move it to the right.
Here it is at the end of the day (a short day, admittedly, because I was tired, and decided not to go on painting past the point of exhaustion.) It is progressing microscopically. I see that I have made the boy too large, I think, but I don't know if I'll bother correcting it. We'll see. I also ventured into the train, and worked on the fences that run horizontally across the middle of the painting.
I spent most of the time today "dirtying" up the greens - I tend to paint greens too intensely (I mix all my greens), when actually greens in the landscape are rather muted. I hope that copying this painting will help me when I go out to paint the real landscape (soon!), which is the whole point of why I am copying it. (Click on the images for a larger view)
Although it was cloudy, it was delightfully mild, so I took a few photos on my way to the Metro. This is the National Archives, from an interesting angle.
I like how windows look with bare trees framing them.
I do love the buildings in DC. If I was a resident of the city, I would paint looking out the window at the buildings around me, with their windows. I do like windows.
This is the Temperance Fountain (its purpose was to encourage people to drink water, not alcohol). I liked the pigeon sitting on top next to the sculpture of the heron.
