n2cre8n

Photography of Scotland

Since I'm painting a photo I took in Scotland, I thought I'd share some of the pics I took while we were there.

The movie theatre in Edinburgh, where we saw Harry Potter 7, part II.  So exciting to see it in the city where she wrote the books!

Little bistro/deli where we had lunch the first day.

Edinburgh Castle

 

A mountain in Edinburgh that we hiked up.

Church ruins of Holyrood Palace . . . amazing carvings and detail here.

some detail of the Rosslyn Chapel . . . where Da Vinci code was filmed.

the castle where we stayed one night.  it was so fun.  we had dinner in the old dungeon!

one of my favorite memories of Scotland was the coffee we drank and reading my book, "The Winter Sea" while we were there and finishing it when we got home.  It's about a writer who went to the Highlands of Scotland to write a novel and her experience while there.  such a treasure to me now.

We rented a car and drive up to the Highlands (like what we refer to as "going to the mountains").  It was soooo beautiful up there.  we could have stayed a month up there.  so many lochs (lakes) and beautiful scenery.  

look familiar?

view from another castle (we saw 6 total) . . . American! LOL

a few pics of the scenery along the road

heading out on another hike

another castle, out on its own little island

I think this was my favorite castle . . . it is in ruins, but still so beautiful!

same castle, view from high inside it

some panoramics I made in Photoshop with photo merge . . . this is a view of Edinburgh

another of Edinburgh

and a view from Stirling Castle

 

It was truly an amazing trip.  I would go back in a heartbeat!!!

 

See the photos section (right column) for more photos

Scotland Highlands painting, Part III

 

Canoe is painted.

Time to start painting the seafood restaurant . . . the tiny, tedious part.  

Shadows, reflections, multiple shades of one color, and many angles.   Eeeek, can I have a glass of wine to do this?  

What I would really appreciate about now is to be able to walk all the way around this place to see the angles, colors, and if there are one or two boats at the pier.  I'll just have to improvise.  Who will ever know, right?

Scotland Highlands painting, Part II

Time to paint the mountains!

The dark mountains gave the sky more of a sunset feel.  They were a little tricky because the sun was on the upper half of them, casting a cloudy yellow tone.  I brought each of the colors down into the water for their reflection, adding a bit of white to lighten them.

 

Here was the palette I started with.

 

And here's how it looked after a bit of experimenting and mixing.  I've learned to add a little and pull it to the side.  It helps me see the progress of how I arrived at the color.

 

After I got the basic colors blocked in, I added some dark shadows and lighter highlights.  I'm happy with the progress so far.  It's been slow, but wonderful.

Next step: the seafood restaurant

Scotland Highlands Painting, Part I

I signed up for an acrylic painting class through a local art gallery This Century Art Gallery.  I haven't taken a fine arts class since college, so it's a bit intimidating.  My goal is to keep learning, trying new things, stretch my comfort zone, and expand my horizons.  Oh my, is all of that ever happening!

We are all painting from a photo we brought in.  I chose one of my favorites from our trip to Scotland this past summer.  This is in Ft. William (in the Highlands).  We were walking along the loch at sunset, so the lighting was perfect for taking photos.  This is a seafood restaurant on the town pier that also offers loch cruises, Crannog Restaurant.  

Notice the vertical and horizontal lines on the photo.  We also drew these on our canvas to help keep things in proportion.  I haven't done that since high school drawing class!  I definitely needed it - was very helpful!

 

I quickly learned I don't know much about acrylic paints - even though I use them all the time!  The little bottles of craft paints we buy are very different from the nicer acrylic paints.  The nicer paints have more pigment, less fillers, and no white.  The richness of these paints is amazing.  

I'm learning what transparent paints do, how to bring colors together to mix colors, and how many colors you can make with a very limited palette (about 6 colors + white).  It's been great!

Week 1, I sketched out the layout and started on the sky and water colors.  Oh mercy, this was going to be harder than I thought!

I brought it home and worked on it a different day for 2 1/2 more hours - just on the sky!  Finally, I was happy with the results.  

Frustration + Time = Growth

right?

 

This will be an ongoing project for a while . . . I'll post again soon.

Inspired 2010

Back home from the Inspired Artist Workshop ---

Wow . . . what an incredible weekend (again)!  My mom and sister came with me this year, from Wyoming.  We spent two days here in VA sight-seeing, then drove to NC for a 4-day weekend of painting, sculpting, paper-crafting, wax layering, bead-making, journal-junking, apron painting, and more. 

SO MUCH FUN!!!

Lots of catching up to do and photos to upload - but here is a little journal page I made tonight about my weekend.