Fishers Green My Way

I wanted to try something new for me personally. I felt that I wanted to produce something with a fair amount of detail but devoid of any photographic reference. I wanted to get back to the pureness of organic painting and not be influenced by photos.

I have completed many en plein air pieces of work and am happy with my results but I find one can be against time if wanting to include detail having to deal with the elements and changing light can be frustrating at times. There is another way to include detail and that is to use photos but this tends to produce inaccurate colours with the light values being lighter and the darks, darker..

With this in mind I decided to try an approach such as that of the artists before the advent of photography, and that is field studies.

I produce a colour study first (this one is in oils). I try to capture the general lighting and ambience of the place and then on a separate occasion I capture the details in pencil. I then I use my scanned drawing as a template and use the colour study as a visual reference. On top of this I try to inject my personality into the piece in terms of technique and imagination. using my studies and memory as my guide.

I could of reproduced this in a detailed oil, watercolour, or acrylic painting but I want to experiment digitally. On this occasion I decided to mix old techniques with modern technology.

It took me 25 hours in total to produce Fishers Green and I am pleased with the result - I hope you like it!