Looking better .

I altered the whitish highlights on the trees to the left of the tower as it didn't look right.
And added a bit more sunshine on certain parts, even in the shadow area to the left but also elsewhere. Very subtle changes, but these do make a difference.
Now I'm really happy with the trees :D

Did a lot of work on the closest section of the wall. Will have to sort some minor perspective issues.
Then there's a ton of detail to be done and... glazing!

I may actually start with a few glazes today as these will show the final colours of that large section of the wall and the left guard tower, truly revealing all the hard work I've done so far.

Better still .

Haha, thank you. And that's to be expected as I progress, lol.
With the way I'm learning to paint now you first block things in, then finish it off with detail etc.
Which can cause the in between stages to look like nothing much at times, but it's part of the process :)

I happened upon a good photo of this section of the wall which is going to help me tremendously!!

More work done today, and I did the 2 layers of glazing to change the values.
It did get quite dark, have to get used to that.
It will get a wee bit lighter again when I add some white indications of the stones.

Also the bright Indian yellow will go lots lighter and softer once I do the indication of stones with white on it. To see the difference look at the 2 upward sections of the wall, 1 on the left still bright yellow, the other not. The only difference is that I painted the white lines for stones on the one and not yet on the other!

I also added the 3 windows on the tower that's just to the right off the centre.

In any case, not done yet. But I am close to finishing it now.

Keep up the good work .

Thanks, Julie!

OT --- The Great Wall of China.
30x40cm Acrylics

After many hours of painting, lots of tweaking, re-doing, correcting, tons of fine detail, and glazing it's done!

Good job :wink. You know for a short time I couldn’t reply to your post? After contacting whoever they cleared me as a spammer which I would never consider myself one but at least now I can reply to posts again.

Thank you, Julie!

And I've been there too, twice over the years! Not a clue as to why. I was totally blocked from the site, but somehow managed to contact someone who then sorted me out again.
First time it happened I was lucky enough to have another member's contact details so I could ask them to tell a mod.

In any case, glad you're back!

I've started my Culloden Battle painting.
It took me some time to work out the composition I could live with. In essence I wanted to paint the Leanach Cottage, then out of the blue I felt like painting a misty part of the battle behind it. I really liked that, but then got into trouble due to the size of the canvas.
In the end I worked it out, cottage a bit further back, soldiers a bit to the foreground. (I had wanted it the other way round at first)

The soldiers will be painted in full detail, then I will put them in a misty setting. Hooray for having bought zinc white which is rather transparent! I hadn't expected it to need it again so soon after the Great Wall!

The cottage will be clear & bright, in full (sun) light.

Yesterday I got the basics done:



I've done a lot of work on the soldiers today. Not done yet, but for today it was enough.
Also altered the colour of the roof so it has the right colour to work with now :)
You cannot really tell, but it is a substantial difference. From the purplish blocking colour to a dark brown-red, it's true base colour.

Nice start .

Thank you, Julie :)

OT - today I decided to work on Leanach cottage first, which I've done. Nearly finished with it, some fine touches and shading etc. left to do.
I didn't work on the Highlanders or soldiers, spent all my time on the cottage.

Sure as heck brings more life into it all, doesn't it?!

Yes it does .

Did fine-tuning of the cottage, subtle things.
And spent some time working on the Highlanders & soldiers. Lots of fine detail.
The greyish figures in the back are exactly that: figures in the background. They'll be in quite thick fog and a few more will be added with more detail, a wee bit more in the foreground.

Looking good .

Thank you, Julie!

I've done more work today. Did the mist over the men in the background, immediately creating more depth :)
And begun with another layer, a highlander that's a wee bit closer than those in the fog. There will be at least one more.

Made the kilts of the highlanders in the foreground a bit lighter, and added highlights to the uniforms of the redcoats as I felt they'd gotten too dark.
And some definition of the grass. I don't think that needs much detail as there will be fog as well, but I might go for a bit here and there nonetheless.

Also did some fine detailed work on the cottage, like making the door brown, make the windows deeper, added more deep red to the roof etc.
Stuff you won't easily see perhaps, but still make a difference.

Keep up the good work .

Thank you!

OT - Lot of work done this afternoon!




A close-up of the soldiers & Highlanders. I'll do a few minor updates here and there, thin lines, nothing major anymore.

Very nice .

Thank you so much, Julie!