Painting Process for Peninsula Impressions.

Peninsula Impressions -  12 x 9"  - by Tracy Feldman
Watercolor and ink on canvas panel.

This little painting is another one inspired by our trip this summer to Wisconsin's Door Peninsula.  It also incorporates elements of the Zentangle style that I've been playing with.  Notice the birch boughs, and the cheese and cherries for which Wisconsin is justly famous.  The "string" running through the piece creates the impression of swim floats which, along with the background and small boats, communicates how important water is on the peninsula.  I also added some wheat stalks because I loved the warmth of their golden color against the cool blues and greens of the rest of the area.  As a piece of whimsy, I had yellow perch (which I ate when there), swimming along the center "string". In the smallest loop, I included a wonderful little unexpected find I came across on the peninsula: fossils along the eastern (Lake Michigan) beaches.  How cool!  

My sister in-law Mae suggested that people might find it interesting to see the process I went through to create this little piece.

I started the painting process by doing a watercolor and ink sketch on paper.

Notice that when I transferred the sketch to 

canvas, I modified the "string" and started 

moving away from my initial design, waiting 

to add vignettes to small loops.

The next phase of the  painting process had me lifting the watercolor pencil lines before adding other color and the vignettes to the small loops.  I knew I couldn't leave it like that.  The painting  needed a background color to balance the composition and help the painting's other  element pop.

At first I thought this version of  the piece 

was the final one.  I wasn't  happy with it, 

but I wasn't sure what was off.

 I slept on it  and realized

 the "water" was too saturated 

and detailed compared

 to the "tangle".

Thus,  I did what watercolorists call "lifting",
 and now I'm happy with  the final result, shown on the right.  I hope you like it.  As always, I'm 
initially making this piece available on auction 
at my DailyPaintworks.com.   If it doesn't sell, 
I'll raise the price to its normal sales price.  
Tell me what you think.

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