The weather forecast said rain today, so Ray decided to do his demo in the studio this morning. He used the sketch from his live demo of the Cosumnes River Preserve that he painted in November as his study for a 12" x 16" studio painting. You can see the post from that demo here. I've also posted another image of his plein air sketch below.
At the beginning of this demo, Ray shows us a time-lapse video of the start of his painting so that he could leap in partway through and show us how he brings a studio piece to completion. He also did a quick tutorial on how he adjusts his photographs in Photoshop to use as a reference for his painting. Ray uses filters to simplify his image in the same way that he naturally approaches his paintings. With a sort of soft focus and simplification of shapes with the modified photo, he's able to keep himself from seeing too much unnecessary detail.
This live demo had some valuable lessons in how to work with reference material collected out in the field. Along with some reminders of what happens to the color white as it recedes in the atmosphere, keying the rest of your painting off of a highlight, and the subtle push and pull of color temperature--All the things that bring a painting to life!
The first image below is Ray's studio painting, followed by his plein air sketch.
The LIVE demo recording was available to our participants to watch for a limited time. The viewing time has since expired. If you missed the LIVE demo, no worries--we'll have it available for purchase in our "Streaming Videos" section on our website soon.
Ray's photograph of the scene prior to manipulating it in Photoshop. In his tutorial, he discusses how he lightens the shadows while maintaining the lights.
