The porch railing

A few years ago, as I was going down our main street in St Michaels, I spotted a porch railing that was tangled with a wonderful flowering vine. Of course, I got out my camera and began to take pictures. Then I forgot all about it.

Recently my watercolor class has been working on a project that we are calling "Painted Ladies." We are looking for Victorian houses with interesting features - windows, porches, carpenter's lace, interesting colors...  I went through my picture file and there was the porch railing picture I had taken - waiting to be painted.

I sketched in the railing and vine...and then began painting...

I went a little nuts with leaves, but loved the flow of vines. If you look closely, you can see part of the window sketched in above the vine. I realized after I got this far that the shutter was too small, so I drew it larger and added paint to it. In the photo, the house was gray and the shutter was black. That seemed a little boring to me. I wanted my painted lady to have color!

So now I have a yellow house with green shutters. I got this far and oh no, I made the shutter bigger but had left the clapboard siding too narrow.  Too many lines - too busy. I stopped and took it to class for a helpful critique.

It is so important to stop and really look at my work. Listening to others - what they see and say makes such a difference. Being too close to what I am doing gets in the way of making it better!

Comments: 

Define window sill

Add shadow under shutter 

More shadow under and at side of railing

Connect window to railing by having vine touch window

Add weight to vine in lower right hand corner - it will balance the shutter

What a difference!

I can always learn from others. Thanks!