Improvising

Making literal and accurate statements are less and less important to me.  Design is more important to me than reporting a scene the way it is.  Color is a dominant concern more so than details that are objects. 

Today I went painting with two friends at one of my favorite spots in Boothbay Harbor.  I was more interested in creating shapes with interesting colors. 

I began with a wet-into-wet underpainting.  Then I chose the elements of the scene that most represented my response to the scene.  A vignette came to mind after that.  I like to keep the values in the midtone range and feather them out at the edges. 

One thing that became evident to me when looking at the efforts of my painting companions was the hesitancy to go really dark with the values around the middle of the focal points.  Using lots of pigment in the central part of the painting is crucial to forcing the viewer's attention to the area of interest.  Refrain from placing darks and lights near the outside edges of the paper.  Putting down darks near the focal point and gradating outward will keep the eye focused around the  center of interest.