Stages 02.1 – Land, Sky, & Color; and 02.2 – Rendering the Seabed

Land, Sky, & Color

Cardnell: This Stage includes work on the clouds, the application of colour to the vegetation, a repositioning of the skiff, the indication of a landmass on the horizon, and a rough introduction of a beach peninsula to the right of the canvas. It is my intention to begin establishing the appearance of rippled sand beneath the water, but that will be introduced in Stage 02.2.

Rendering the Seabed

Water is the connecting theme in all of Cardnell’s works. He does not work from a white canvas but rather ‘blocks in’ colors to create a base image for the painting, as evidenced previously in Stage 01. He then works from there with layer upon layer of detail work – creating from ‘out to in’ as will be evidenced in future stages. Lighting is as important an element as water in every painting and can set the tone for the viewer’s response.

Cardnell: I’ve started to paint in the major area of ripples. The clarity of the furrowing in the rippling disappears towards the left as the water gets deeper. This is as far as I’ve progressed to-date as I’m feeling my way through this feature, but I’m happy with what I’ve established so far.  When the entire sea area has had an ‘effect’ rendered I will selectively apply a light scumble to unify the sea area. I’m pretty sure this will be the most difficult and time-consuming part of the painting so it’s best to lay in as much paint as possible and deal with any problems that arise to ensure it doesn’t slow us down later on. The pin-sharp highlights will overlay these furrows and error-correction to underlayers is fraught. I’m giving special attention to this because (as it’s such a large area) I think it is important to have a credible seabed that anglers will immediately relate to, and based on experience, I believe I will be able to represent it faithfully.