Part 3 Project 5 Exercise 3 Limited Palette Study

Due to the fact that my husband had left his camera at school, and I do not feel safe or comfortable drawing on the street, I decided to work with what was available to me, the view from my lounge window. I am particularly fond of this view from my lounge window. I decided to use the sketch I did during my aerial perspective study to develop a limited palette interpretation of it. This scene is very typical of this region of Cotonou, with its haphazard mix of buildings and vibrant palm trees of all sorts and shades.

Initial sketchbook study.

I started with a watercolor study in my sketchbook, which I think caught the essence of the scene using only greys and greens.  I enjoyed practicing using layers in my foliage sections.

Due to the fact that the scene from my lounge window is a predominantly grey scene, on my second attempt at capturing this scene, I decided to use a warm-grey toned paper as my base color, instead of pristine white. I tried to use this tone as one of my lighter mid-range tones, instead of the white as highlights.

For this study I used a mixture of watercolor pencils, water color crayons, inks, and acrylic white. I often found myself sitting with a fist full of varying crayons and pencils in my hand which I used intermittently.

This study did gradually evolve. I started with a light sketch of the various buildings drawing in the main verticals and horizontals, as well as all of the diagonals. The buildings in the background were the hardest as their angles were so subtle due to the distance between them and my viewpoint. I started working with this background zone first, trying to be as light in my touch as possible. It tried to only imply detail where ever possible, without totally losing all definition. As this is a hot climate, things in the distance do still have quite a bit of definition.

I developed an approach of laying down broad strokes of watercolor washes and then working details in on top using watercolor pencils and crayons. For the sky, I created grey washes to imply the hazy bleak sky that greets us daily.

My next area of focus was the middle ground, with its buildings, and their surrounding vegetation. I found a satisfying technique of laying down the darker tones within the vegetation, and then working in a textural manner on top, with water color pencils and crayons. I debated whether to have the roof in the middle ground red, or not. In my preliminary sketch, I stuck completely to green tones, but I felt that the warmth of the drawing was lacking. So, in this sketch, I decided to include the warm rusty, red tones of the middle ground roof to add some vibrancy and warmth to the otherwise fairly muted green tones.

My extreme foreground area includes the top slice of the roof directly infront of our apartment, and the side of the nextdoor office block. Together they form a partial frame to the right hand side and bottom of the picture plane. I think this works as it tends to focus your eye towards the busier left handside of the picture, where the two taller palm trees form the left-hand portion of the picture.

The last area I worked on was these two palm trees. As they are my focal point, I tried to give them more detail and lots of textural and tonal variance. I do enjoy the chalkboard effect of drawing a lighter color on top of a darker ground color. It provides quite a contrast between the shadows and the highlights.

I do feel that I was able to create a sense of depth, although not quite as convincingly as my achromatic ink study of the Spanish village. I find using just black and whites to portray aerial perspective far easier to control. However, color is more descriptive of the actual scene from my window and lends a tropical warmth which can only be implied in an achromatic color scheme.

In this second study, I used a splash of muted red in the roof in the middles ground to add some interest.

On completion of this drawing I decided to see what it would have looked like with the far right-hand side building reduced somewhat. In Photoshop, I cropped the side a bit and I think it helps to tighten the image, focusing your attention on the middle ground and less on the boring building to the right - which is a very boring building. I also noticed that I had inadvertently left out some windows in the grey building just behind the foreground right building.

Photoshop cropped version

Although I prefer the rich colors of my second painting and the intricacy of the details in the foliage, I think I enjoy the spontaneity of the sketchbook approach more. They are very different studies. I am undecided as to whether my building which is missing some windows needs them or not. I think it would draw more focus with the windows, whereas at the moment the palm trees are getting the attention.