I like the boat here, the "Hirondelle." Yeah and the keyhole view to the far distance. Yeah,
and then the stern of this one right in the foreground. What do you think?
Does it work for all of us?
Here we see Jada (Rowland) demonstrating the use of the Viewcatcher.
I'm also using a viewfinder. This one's homemade, made of cardboard painted black and marked evenly
with five by eight increments and i've matched those increments with five inches by eight inches
marked in a grid in pencil so that i can place each of the main lines of the picture that i've
chosen out of this whole scene i have the boat occupying the left hand side of the composition
my eye level is about at the level of the water line a little bit below
and the keyhole view will be framed by the boat on the left and the building on the
right forming a distant view let me show you some examples of keyhole views they're often
framed by doorways like on the far left of this painting by Ferdinand Waldmuller of a farrier
shop or this one by Lawrence Alma Tadema we see through the curtain the whole scene or hear this
Ilya Repin of a recruit going off to war. As i start with the paint—this is gouache paint—I'm
using a little bit of white mixed into it because i want it to be very flat and opaque if i were to
have painted this in transparent watercolor it would have been harder to achieve this really
smooth even color i'm making a little bit lighter and a little bit warmer toward the right hand side
skies gradate not only from the zenith at the top down to the horizon
they not only that but they also have a gradient that goes away from the sun
that solar glare the glare around the sun makes it lighter and so farther from the sun laterally
it gets darker now having painted the sky i can now paint the shadow side of the
water line and the transom of the boat in shadow
most of the boat is in shadow at this point but the sun will probably come around and
light the side of the boat later
That dull blue gray that I laid down there underneath the rudder area is white in shadow
so that if i paint something even darker than that that color will read as white in shadow
catching the blue of the sky
now with a fairly dry brush and some dull green color i can suggest the foliage of the tree
which has an interesting texture along its edge
the paint is peeling on this old boat probably hasn't seen water in a long time
i've split the hairs of this brush so i can paint the leaves fairly efficiently
these little boats take a lot of maintenance
the tones in the shadow range from the white in shadow to the very darkest dark under the keel
and on the whole of the boat itself you've got the dark red color
under the water line the blue green color along the water line and then the white above that
and then the color of the planks which we see through the peeling paint all that is modified
by its angle in relation to the sky and of course to the sunlight the sunlight is now shining on the
side of the boat so i'm using a more pure white to paint the light on the side of those planks
and that brown color or the gray color underneath is the color of the exposed wood
of the planks where the paint is peeled off
We've got all these steel supports
holding up various boats
I'm using a thin rigger brush
I want to put the name of the boat in the back here
so i figure the first letter the last letter in the middle letter
that's the Hirondelle
the boat that's just past it is receiving light
i'm painting around a cast shadow that the Hirondelle is casting onto the boat next to it
makes an interesting shape at this time of day
the taf rail on the after deck is a dark grayish color and there's some cable railings on the sides
so i'll use this long rigger brush for painting these thin lines
with any thin architecture like this i can use either the painted line or a drawn line with a
pencil the gouache surface makes a very receptive surface to either one and i'm using here more a
pencil line with a white highlight for where the cable railing replaces the solid railing
i'm saving for last the stilts or stands that the boats are propped up on
but they create a forest of detail on the left hand side that keep the eye from wanting to
travel back through that little window to deep space and instead we want to travel
back into the depth of the scene along the road and on the right hand side in this keyhole view
when i was young i knew a guy who had a dream of sailing alone around the world he built his boat
and it remained propped up in a boatyard like this i wanted his dream to come true but it never did
and this boat reminds me of that yearning that's really what a keyhole view is all about
it creates a space within a picture to pull you back into a dream
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