Molly’s 100 day challenge: Landscapes

[Molly Dodd]

Hi everyone! I enjoy landscape painting, but am not very sophisticated at it. I have to move and change jobs over the summer, and have a little daughter, so some days I may not have time for more than a quick sketch, but want to make a commitment to get back into art. I’ve been watching the landscape series, and enjoy impressionistic paintings. Eventually I would like to get an easel and work outdoors.

Day 1: water soluble oils on paper. The grass in the foreground got mushier than I’d like, but I enjoy the contrast between the water and grasses. Took about two hours.

[Bryan Mccabe]

Hello Molly. This is a good start. I like the yellowness of the grass. I’m looking forward to seeing more of your work.

[Iliya Mirochnik]

Hi Molly,

I really like that you like landscapes, and impressionistic ones at that! I’m an enormous fan I think that Impressionism, along with the Venetian masters a few hundred years before them, were the 2 great explosions of a true understanding of color in the history of painting in the West. So there’s a lot to learn there, and a lot to imitate, and imitate shamelessly I might add. It’s worth it! I’d even do some copies of landscapes you like! I made a draw-over with some corrections on how I would “tighten up” this landscape. I marked up the changes I made but also keep in mind that I cropped the whole piece from the bottom and the right hand side to make it a more balanced and interesting composition.

Keep up the awesome work!

Iliya

 

[Molly Dodd]

Thank you Bryan!

Ilya, thank you so much for the suggestions! I’ll look up the Venetian masters this week – I don’t recall their work.

Day 2: My husband saw that I was painting, and asked for a Father’s Day painting based on some photos he took of taking our daughter out to see streams and waterfalls. While I have done figure drawing a bit, figure painting, especially at small scale, is very much outside my comfort zone. Also, no time to watch videos or research today.

But anyway, water soluble oils on a 5×7 panel. Other than the figure, the main thing I’d like to learn to communicate better if the pool of water. Water that flows through tamarack swamps takes on a clear deep brown that’s different from mud. It’s dark red brown in deep places, and a kind of bright gold in shallows in the light. I didn’t capture it so well here, but would like to in future.

[Molly Dodd]

Day 3: I was tired and wanted something cheering and not too complicated. Migrating pelicans.

[PaulDidier]

Hi Molly. Welcome to the challenge! Looking forward to seeing your work. I’ve never been good at landscapes but have always wanted to be. I’m particularly challenged by Plein air painting. Again, something I’d really like to learn how to do. So it’ll be great watching you take on this challenge. You obviously already have some skills in this area.

[Molly Dodd]

Days 4 and 5: This one is about an abandoned pet rabbit we rescued at a park and some wetlands we visited a couple weeks ago. Even if I could set up an easel, I don’t think I would be up to plain air with the bugs

• This reply was modified 3 years, 10 months ago by Molly Dodd.
• This reply was modified 3 years, 10 months ago by Molly Dodd.

[Molly Dodd]

Thanks Paul! Once my daughter’s a little older I really want to get out plain air painting! It may have to wait for next summer, though – I’m trying to at least get my skills up a bit before then

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