Afternoon at the farm...

A few weeks ago I spent a day at Old Sturbridge Village, a great place for artists to take reference photos for paintings. A favorite location at OSV is the Pliny Freeman farm (no relation that I  am aware of!!). The sunlight cast a warm glow on the buildings, and provided some good light-and-shadow contrasts, so the painting was a satisfying challenge. As usual, I didn't remember to start taking photos of my painting progress until I was well into it! Oh well... I am pleased with the finished product. 

Step one shows the sketched-in outline of the board fence in the foreground. I painted the sky first, with a wash of Cobalt Blue, using a 1" flat brush to cut around the roof lines of the buildings. While it was still damp, I deepened the tone of the sky on the right of the painting to give it some depth and variation.

Reference photo

In step two, below, I added color (Alizarin Crimson mixed with a bit of Payne's Gray} to the back building at far right, and to the chimney. 

I also added a pale wash of gray (a mixture of French Ultramarine and Sepia) to the roof, put in some shadow lines to emphasize its gambrel style of that roof, and brushed on an uneven wash on the fence boards, using warm and cool tones of gray wash. 

The final painting, showing additional details -- but not too much "fussy" stuff. 

"Freeman Farm in the Afternoon" 

transparent watercolor   14" x 11," including mat and frame