Tryon Palace Gate and Rudbeckia Maxima

I saw this scene  behind the Commission House near the Palace a couple years ago and could not get it out of my mind. The Rudbeckia were HUGE.

I am a watercolorist that occasionally does an oil painting. But I really want to learn to paint in oils. I can do it but it takes me forever to do a painting.

So I am slowly learning.

This is the first oil I've done using this technique and has totally changed how I will approach an oil from now on.

I've started with very very thin paint to sketch out the scene. Then - this part is the odd part - I start blocking in with the opposite color on the color wheel.


Where green is going to be I'm painting red, where yellow, purple.

 

Then I start putting the local - or real colors.

Why do it? Using contrasting colors makes the composition dramatic

     and more interesting.

Slowly the colors are building up.

 

Finished I think!

Decided not quite
toned down the flowers in the back and bumped up color on the Rudbeckia..... NOW it's finished!!

I did a little video on youtube
here is the Link.