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Painting the Frostville Barnhouse - Part 2
OBJECT: Greg adds the finishing touches to the Frostville Barnhouse painting.

Step Six Step Six: Building a house
Using a mix of permanent rose, burnt sienna and cadmium orange, I painted the local color on the roof. While that was damp I used a purple mix to lay the shadows on the roof. I used the same purple and a touch of cobalt blue and added some detailing and shadows on the white front door area.

With a mix of sap green and raw sienna I painted the window shutters.
Step Seven: Strengthen the design
To add atmosphere and drama, and to start pulling the painting together I mixed a bit of alizarin crimson with sap green and deepened the treeline around the house. This helped pop the contrast with the side of the house in shadow.

Then I mixed an intense cobalt blue wash and got bold with the patterns in the shadows of trees that fall across the house.

Some hooker's green dark and burnt umber were mixed and I added dark clumps of grasses across the foreground, playing with the overall patterns that have arisen as the painting has progressed.
Step Eight: Playing in space
I grabbed the #10 round sable and dipped into the blue mix from the previous step and used it to tone down the ground foliage, trying to push it back in the distance, and push the large front bush closer to the corner of the house.

An additional blue wash was then laid over the side of the house to adjust the apparent depth.
Step Nine: Bringing into focus
Using a #6 round sable I used a cobalt blue, burnt umber and pthalocyanine blue mix to add shutter details like the hinges and such.

Mixing a darker green wash I started indicating tree trunks and branches on the right-hand side.
Click image to enlarge Step Ten: All Done!
(Click the painting for a large image)

After letting the painting set out for a day I brought it out again and looked at it with a loose mat.

I saw a few areas that needed tweaking and after making some minor adjustments in contrast and shapes, the painting was declared finished.

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