Tuesday, July 15, 2008

1908 Howitzer plein air oil painting


















This is a Howitzer, 1908...caliber is 4.7 and its
projectile weighs 60 pounds. The painting did not
get finished tonight...as I lost light. It was however
a beautiful light tonight, and though getting ready for
my trek up to Michigan...packing to move into a new
house (on and on) I had to get out and paint tonight.

Wish I actually had about 45 more minutes of light.
Perhaps I can go back and finish this one on location,
or I can work with a photo reference I took. I have
enough of the color and mood down I believe.

Here are some other images of interest...one, how
my set up looked in front of the howitzer...























This one shows my palette, which was a split-
complementary palette. What that means is, after
determining what I sensed as a dominant color
(bluish-green) I mixed up a pile of that. Then I
determine its complementary color which would
be reddish-orange. The split-complementaries are
the two colors on either side of the complement, thus
red...and orange.










I use those three colors only to mix my paint for
the painting...plus white.

Here is the block in...I opted for a bluish-green
undertone...




















A subject like this requires more careful drafting,
so I used a bristle round and did a bit of drawing
with turps and medium...


















Finally...thought you'd get a kick out of this,
as everywhere I paint, I find some unique thing
to hold my brushes...on grass, I often do this...

5 comments:

Dianne Mize said...

Good stuff, Larry. Interesting, fun, clever. I don't like guns, but you've made this one beautiful.

Larry Seiler said...

I just look at it as an undeniable piece of our history, and fosters a deep respect and appreciation that the sacrifices made allow me yet to enjoy freedom to paint.

Certainly wouldn't have wanted to experience being on a field where these things of terrible horrible power came to life!!!

take care...thanks

SEILER said...

Whoa, very cool!

Larry Seiler said...

thanks Jason..

Helen Read said...

I agree! Wonderful use of color here!