A trip to Dungeness has an unexpected outcome...

In my previous post and exercise, I had to explore a journey taking an object and drawing each moment of that journey-- then ultimately making a draft of an illustration that is inspired from it.

I went to Dungeness the coastal town in Kent, England, and came across very inspiring sights and sculptures; I was initially dreading the journey and wasn't expecting much when I got there, apart from what I already had seen/heard. However, I found myself in awe of the surroundings.

I came across the idea to go to Dungeness when I noticed the sights of this costal area on Landscape Artist of the Year (Series 8), the final. Three artists took to the landscape, each drawing from different areas in different styles; so when I drove up to the place I already had some idea of what to expect.

I did some sketching with graphite and a little bit of watercolour to capture the lighting and some key colours; I took a few reference photos and enjoyed the sights.

After I completing the exercise and this part of the course, waiting for it to be marked up, I decided to be bold. I decided to paint...

The process wouldn't have happened without lots of patience and some Youtube (of course), and I learnt what to do before and what to do throughout. Before I show you the painting, one key tip that I feel really helped was to break into a tonal drawing/painting before I go in and paint; this way I was able to confidently capture the correct shadows and tones of the reference into my painted piece.

I highly recommend watching this if you're new to oil painting, or painting in general because it teaches you how to create landscapes and the new steps to painting; it teaches you value, colour mixing and value relationships.

When implementing the lesson into my learning before I went into painting I ensure I had a confident sketch on the canvas and went backwards into my sketchbook and created a value study. Nothing perfect just squinting my eyes and capturing the values with my alcohol pens.

Then the painting begins, I don't have video or photos of the process because I am chaotic with painting, I have everything everywhere, I have either a tv show rerun playing or music, and I get lost in painting.

Here is the painting... (with close ups)

Here are some videos of the painting...

It's a very large canvas and it's landscape which is something I haven't explored in years, I was very surprised with how it turned out, I do think it could be better but I like the grungeness of the painting and even though the bristles are stuck into the canvas and it's splotchy, it feels like it's an old photographIy-- take out the cars and telephone poles and the painting would look quite old fashioned.

I like how the lighthouse captures your eyes and it lets you lead down and along the canas, very nice composition. The colours are good, some areas are a little muddy but the little spots of bright red really make the painting pop; it reminds me of the effects old photography film would be printed out with some colours saturated and some are really punchy. The texture of the grassy ground with the sandy tones are nice, I really stopped myself from making it how the reference is with adding lots of texture and painting every grass strand-- and I think that worked out well.

In reference to the photo I used (below), I really picked it apart, I removed some of the background elements to avoid overcrowding; the painting isn't perfect, but it is in the right direction for my painting journey.

1 Paint Coach, Youtube ' The one step that makes OIL PAINTING landscapes so much EASIER', Apr 11, 2022. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_CheHeBJvI&t=245s Accessed May 5, 2023.