I’ve been struggling with the cedar trees in my painting. And there’s been a problem with colors in my trees in the middle ground. Most of my paint are variations on sepia.
That’s just because almost all of my color comes from rocks in various shades of brown, with red to yellow tints.
The color ‘sepia’ has an interesting history. Did you know it started with a cuttlefish?
Playing with Mistakes
Since nothing I’ve done so far has worked to make the cedars look the way I want them to look, I played around with them a bit. That only made things worse and am still dissatisfied.
I was fairly satisfied with the distant trees, even in shades of sepia. But they still lacked the color I wanted. I could live with them as they are, though.
My Cedars Don’t Look Right
When I first started feeling that dis-ease, I wasn’t sure WHY they don’t look right. Only that they aren’t going to work as they are.
So, once the paint is good and dry, I’ll sand that part down to a smooth surface and try again. Not the whole painting! I’m happy with everything except those cedars, so no need to be extreme with the sander.
Figuring Out the Problem
Before a problem can be fixed, it’s good to have an idea of what caused it in the first place.
During a ride to Fort Smith last week, I looked at a bunch of cedar trees along the way. They’re all plump in the middle and not the cedar I’m trying to paint. Mine is more scraggly.
But, I did notice something important.
Upward or Downward?
The limbs on them all grew upwards. The cedars I painted all have downward limbs, more like spruce or fir trees.
So then I spent some time looking critically at the actual cedar I’m trying to paint, the one beside the shed. It’s scraggly with limbs pointing upwards, outwards, and a few are downwards near the bottom.
It helps that scene I’m trying to paint is a real one just outside my door. Even though it won’t literally look the same as the real scene (because I simply can’t do that level of representation yet, and not sure it’s a goal, really), at least I can understand why my tree isn’t doing for me what it should.
It’s also not a thick blob of cedar color.
Found the What, Still Need the How
So, now I know WHAT the problem is, but I’m still not sure how to fix it. But at least now I have an idea of how and will go from there once the canvas is ready for me to take another stab at it.
It feels odd to say it, but even though a brush hasn’t touched this painting in more than a week, I’m still working on it! The work is mental. Every time I look at it, I make a little more progress towards how to remedy the problem. When I’m studying the trees outside, it’s to help me notice what went wrong in my first attempt.
Little by little, I’m figuring it out. And once I start to paint again, I’ll have some sort of game plan to make those pesky trees look more like the trees they’re supposed to represent.
Sanding it down to a smooth start-over point is the first step. Just the trees, not the whole thing. Whew. I’m glad I don’t feel the need to start entirely over, given how long it’s taken to get to this point.
Detour Ahead, Maybe in Sepia
In the meantime, I have a tree commission to do for someone. This one won’t have any leaves, so it’s just bare branches. I’m good at that. Now to decide whether it’s going to have color or be a sepia-toned, or grayscale painting.
They’ve left that up to me, and I’m leaning towards sepia, as it’s one of my favorite color schemes.
Swerving Off-topic: Sepia Dreams
I even sometimes have dreams in sepia-tones, and they’re always the most strange of all of my dreamscapes – another topic entirely. But an interesting one, and I’m feeling compelled to share it.
In my dreams with that color setting, I’m not me, yet I am, and I don’t know anyone else or the locations in the dreams. Except the me in those dreams usually is familiar with the places and people. It’s the oddest sense of dual-existence I’ve ever experienced.
So what I want to know is this- do you have dreams of strange places with people you don’t know and you’re not ‘you’? What about dreamscape colors? Are they normal color, no color, or have you ever had series of dreams in a certain color setting?
While writing this post, I did a quick search on ‘sepia dreams’ and found this song by that title. It fits the mood of my dreams, even!
