The Green Shed, Part Two

A year after completing the small picture of the green shed, I returned to the same spot, to try again on a 16x20" canvas. Here's what I found:

There were some improvements in the scene after a year. The grass was overgrown, obscuring most of the bottom of the opening. A piece of plywood lay against the right border. I moved thirty feet to the right, allowing a large bush to cover the right border of the shed. What all of these things did was to break up the big rectangle shape which looked so dull on the previous attempt to paint the scene.

So this was the first day's work, rubbed in thinly. The little scribble on the lower right, the thing which resembles Chinese calligraphy, was actually a note I made to myself to sneak a red hydrant into the picture, which actually lay outside the scene.

Sometimes it's helpful to do a drawing or oil sketch of a something you intend to paint. If nothing else, it makes you comfortable about it.

So here's how it looked, with  the hydrant and a first attempt at color. I thought the hydrant would be more interesting if I tilted it a bit. The bulldozer and water tank on the left didn't seem to be earning their keep.

So here's how the picture ended up. I think it's a much stronger image than the previous year's.