Undulating Trunks

The first step today is to  mix all of my adobe colors, from the darkest shadows to the lightest lights. The piece my collector liked, Snowy Embrace had a blue door with a touch of red in the adobe. Because this painting will have a red door, that color of adobe wouldn’t look very good. So I use a base combination of Cadmium Orange + Pthalo Blue + White which will give the walls a tiniest little bit of a green cast. This won’t be discernible to the eye but will make the red door appear even more vibrant.

The shadows are blocked in to begin with, then the sunlit area of the wall is painted. The upper part of the wall is lighter because it is closer to the light source, the sun. The wall darkens in value as it gets closer to the ground.

Using the same sequence I paint the door. Shadows first, then the light. Notice the shadows cast by the vigas. The edges are sharper close to the base of the protruding beam. As the shadow descends, away from its source, the edges soften. Also the color of the shadow gets cooler (bluer). This is fun to observe in nature, take a moment on a sunny day to study the shadows cast around your home.

Wisterias have the most wonderful, gnarled trunks, a real treat to paint. I mix several shades of brown using MUD (Ultramarine Blue + Alizarin Crimson) + Cadmium Orange + White. Then grab my brush and go, letting the strokes define the undulations of the twisting trunks. Thank you for visiting today, please feel free to come back tomorrow. Hugs, Mikki Senkarik

Website: www.senkarik.com