January 2013 Challenge

[stoney]

Final.

Eradicated pier railings and worked a bit on the water that side.  Hinting the rails are too small to be seen from this distance.  Worked the beach and water back to mid-ground.
I did put the figure in, going in the opposite direction.  I deliberately made her small and almost blend in.

Put some final touches in the sky here and there. Adding light bits and suggesting depth.

Added some sky color into water including right forward.  Didn't do much as I wanted the eye to not be attracted that way.

Details

[Denise808]

  Hi
For those that entered January's challenge, just wanting to know how you planned out all the "legs" on the pier. There is so much detail, how did you go about dealing with that part of it?

[jennylynn]

hi denise as for how i did the pier, i mixed my 3 primaries to get a black, then i measured the pier height and width then just painted the stilts holding it up, didn't count them just put them some of them  on an angle . used a rigger for the railings.

[LanieT]

[Denise808]

Jennylynn, thanks for replying, I did my pier pretty much the way you did too Fun contest huh?
 
Lanie, no, not too much detail at all! This is exactly what I was wondering about. You had more of a plan laid out than I did. I almost didn't do this challenge because of the pier, so finding out how you planned it out will help me the next time I get a mental block to painting something unfamiliar.

[LanieT]

Denise - so glad this was helpful. Be happy to talk about things like this any time.

[Dorothyofoz]

Well done Lanie, you described that perfectly. It's more or less what I did but I could not explain the steps as well as you did.   

[stoney]

Hi
For those that entered January's challenge, just wanting to know how you planned out all the "legs" on the pier. There is so much detail, how did you go about dealing with that part of it?

I didn't, per se. 

I drew an angled light line representing the impact point with the water.  I then drew a line to that point then overlapped another vertical to a point above the angled line.  This suggests the other leg.

As to where the vertical intersected the pier, they were all eyeballed with distances between decreasing as the angles increased.

The cross braces were done with a toothpick.  This was "willy nilly" and more suggestive than not.  Some thick areas might be areas which had been roughly repaired.  A few cross-braces didn't connect.  These were ones which wave action had broken and hadn't been repaired yet.

[Denise808]

Denise - so glad this was helpful. Be happy to talk about things like this any time.

Lanie, I just may well take you up on that offer in the near future
 
Dorothy, Lanie sure does have a knack for clearly explaining what could be complicated
 
Stoney, thank you for replying. Nice to know things don't have be done so precisely in order for it to still look "precise" in our minds. Also, the things that don't look precise can have perfectly logical reasons for it that make it completely ok...

[stoney]

Hi
For those that entered January's challenge, just wanting to know how you planned out all the "legs" on the pier. There is so much detail, how did you go about dealing with that part of it?

Apologies for the response delay.  I just saw this as I'm discovering new aspects of this site.  Now I see I did respond, but perhaps a little more explanation might help.

The 'detail' is all constructed in your mind.  The paint strokes are all suggestive.

I addressed the pier side furthest from the viewer first.  I did a single vertical stroke to the water level.  I wasn't precise in the distance as you've wave and trough.  I also wasn't precise in the placement although I did put them closer together as the distance from the viewer increased.

I then placed the nearer posts, again not precise nor the same length.

As the viewing angle increases you'll see more of the pillars on the far side. Again I was deliberately sloppy.  The reason for this is repairs would have had to been made due to time and wave action. 

The "X's" of cross bracing is rough and some are broken for the same reason.  In this case, repairs hadn't been done yet.

Shadows were roughly blocked in, again suggestive.  I had put the water in first, although I did make some changes between the vertical posts.  All suggestive to allow the viewer to fill in the blanks with their mind.  Such also has the tendency to keep the viewer in front of the work longer.

I also did one in oils which can be seen in my gallery.