The Ruysdael Project

I'm a genuine webshop owner these days. My Painting Clouds video is online since early June 2013 and now my oil sketches are available online too. And with some succes, I must say. Really pleased with it.

I'm still working on the Ruysdael project I told you about earlier. I finally made a choice which of the oil sketches I'd use for the big painting (120 x 160 cm). I decided on the one with the pond and the clouds in backlight. (Check my previous blog for that one. Thanks for the advice, John.) These last few days I've been working on the underpainting. I took a snapshot of me in front of the piece, to give you an idea of the size of the thing. I just had a hair cut. Gave me a cold head, hence the headgear.
 
I decided to paint the blue of the sky without outlining the clouds first. When this layer is dry I'll paint them on top. It's a different approach, compared to the video, where I left them blank in the first stage. The clouds I'm gonna paint on this background are not as massive as in the video and I want the blue of the sky to shine through in some spots. I will have to use my fingers and my cloth to get the edges right. Can't work them into the blue of the sky once the paint is dry. Sorry for the annoying reflections on the right side of the pictures. The paint was still wet when I took em.   

Next I laid down the first layer of the landscape. It's a view at Vlieland, my favorite Dutch island. The lighthouse sits on top of the dune in the distance. That'll probably be one of the last things I'm gonna paint. Got to get the sky right first, before adding a detail like that, no matter how important. 

The first stage of the landscape is done with a wide brush, no details, just to get an idea. I'm not sure if I'm gonna keep the water. Don't know how it'll work out once the sky is finished. In reality the water comes and goes too, depending on the rainfall. 

I'll keep you posted!