This is a Christmas present for my sister Katy . The subject is from a photo she took. I have about 12 hours in the project.
I transferred the basic outline to the canvas for the steps and the door frame only. The rest comes straight from the brush(es). I started out with the wall to the left. It felt as if there were some blues so I mixed a dove grey and added a little anthriquinone blue. I added some blue to darken that and "etched" in the cracks in the plaster that roughly highlight the original stone around the door. The result was way too blue and the cracks were too sharp. I decided to do a white wash (titanium white with lot of water) applied with a stiff bristle brush. I really like the effect.
The steps intimidated me. The stone was easier than I anticipated. For the tile, I laid down a base of light olive green to match the aged grout (titanium white, pthalo blue and yellow ochre). When that was dry I applied the tiles in dabs from a very small brush, first laying out the blue pattern and filling in with a very pale grey. The door was next. There is a little aged, red paint remaining, some panels missing and a lot of cracked, aged wood. I painted the entire door as if there was no paint (carbon black, titanium white and raw umber). Then I added the red (oxide red and mixed it with cad red, about 50/50)in the areas it was strong. Finally I "scrubbed" in some red on the rest of the door.
Finally the vines hanging to the left. I have no idea what plant this is. First I covered most of the right side in a very dark green. Then I started adding leaves based on the scale and colors in the photo. All the leaves are done with pthalo blue, cad yellow and titanium white, mostly mixed on the canvas. For the parts of the trunk that show I used a very pale taupe (raw umber and titanium white) and added black with a stiff bristle brush.
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