Anatomy Of A Painting

I had painted a similar style piece like this before, but wanted a larger and slightly more complex composition this time.

In the first photo you can see the original drawing sketched onto the paper.In deciding the composition, I was acutely aware of the negative space surrounding the hearts pouring from the chimneys, so I needed that space to be able to support them spatially.

A low horizon punctuated with the houses and trees ties the sky and land area together.I feel this works well.

After masking out the hearts and trees, I quickly brushed in th sky, keeping it simple so not to confuse the busy hearts in the sky.Masking allows to keep fluid and wet washes for the sky.Also when the masking fluid is removed it takes the sheen off the paper, allowing the washes placed afterwards, to saturate the area with more strength.

I next paint the houses,as they are a lighter element, allowing me to guage the background hills and hearts, later on, for more high impact visuals.

With the front lawn areas painted in, the trees and hearts are ready to have the masking fluid removed,leaving lovely pristine paper to be painted upon. I made the lawn areas green to contrast with the dominance of reds in the painting.The yellow/orange of the trees actually act as a colour bridge to the hearts above in a more flowing manner.

The hearts were going to be painted in 3 different hues with the Red ones in the middle,as they were to dominate.The right hand hearts were a link to the distant hills and to the middle section of hearts colourwise. The yellow/orange hearts give
a slight contract, and echo the trees with in the painting.

Could I have done anything better.Well, yes! Lots of things actually, but that's a secret I won't be sharing with you.I will learn, and grow from yet another experience, getting better as I go.