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Work in Progress-- Old Bridge

Awhile back I went for a short drive with a friend and she knows the area well and took me to an old bridge that I think is about 100 years old. We stopped and walked down to the bottom of the bridge and I noticed some water under the bridge and the reflection of the colors on the water struck me to be a good idea for a painting.

Below is the photograph I took of the scene I planned to make a painting out of.



I had prepared a 16" x 20" canvas by toning it a reddish orange color with acrylic paint previously.

I then drew in a rough drawing of the scene with a piece of flint charcoal. Then I started to paint with my dark color mixture.

See picture below for beginning stages of this painting..



One important thing to note for beginner oil painters is: The order of painting is dark colors first then gradually go to your lighter colors. I do my darks first then put in some light areas to be able to gauge the middle values better. But I leave the small detail stuff for the end.

There are now some green areas.

See picture below for this stage of the painting..



I've done some more painting on this project and you can see what I have added with the light areas put in.



In the next pictures you can see I have started to paint the bridge structure itself..



I will continue to build up the area of the bridge or the bridge structure that is built with various stones and bricks.

I have continued to do some more work on the painting and put in the light yellow areas around the tree under the bridge. Also, I have done more work to the bricks and stone area of the bridge. You can see the water reflected in the blue blotch areas I've put in to indicate the reflection of the sky.



I have finally finished the painting. See the results below!



When I was first learning how to paint with oils I encountered the common problem of "when is it finished?" Many times I would overwork a painting to death and finally realized that when it is finished you just stop. Don't over do it or you could just end up with mud on your canvas. If you get bogged down and find you just don't know for sure if it is done, take a break and do something else then come back to it with a fresh eye. Ask someone their opinion if they think it is done. Just don't get too stressed about it and enjoy the process. That is what it is all about.

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