View from the balcony of my step-mother’s cottage in the Laurentians.
If I were to do this piece again, I would make sure to paint the foreground trees with a sharper brush. I know in theory that foreground elements should be clearly defined, and background elements should be out of focus, but I don’t always remember to follow through with that!
A sunny field and some dramatic clouds – a perfect day to spend in the Eastern Townships!
Wow, I struggled with this one. I never felt like I could get the colours right, or the sense of a multitude of branches. I love trees, I love the idea of painting trees, but when it gets right down to it, people who paint trees have the patience of a SAINT, and that’s just not me. Perhaps I should relax my own rules for this project and allow myself to use special Photoshop brushes in order to more easily simulate branches (and vegetation in general), rather than force myself to treat my digital work as if it were real paints…
This was one of the last sketches that I managed to complete during my lunch break at work. After this one, they all got some re-tooling on my computer at home. And not a moment too soon! The monitors at my office are not very well-calibrated (we’re animators, not graphic designers, after all!), so it was a bit of a shock to bring this piece home and realize I can see a lot more of the underpainting than I realized – or that the horizon line is a little crooked!
Ah, but that water… now THAT I count as a success!
AND if you’re camping at Mont Tremblant, and you’d like to score this view for yourself, just book Huttopia (Ready-to-Camp) site #74! If you don’t mind a short-but-steep hill, you can scramble down a little private path to the water’s edge, and then it’s just you and the lake! I must have taken a hundred pictures from that spot in al kinds of weather conditions, so expect to see more Mont Tremblant images in future!
I decided to stop making things harder for myself, and finally give in to the siren call of Photoshop. I’ve been playing around with flat colour and cleaner graphics, and I’m digging it!
Allow me to introduce you all to Violet, whose superpowers include (but are not limited to) being able to balance a pre-med program, helping out in her family’s corner store on the week-ends, and attending any record listening party she can.
Prints, etc. are available on Society6!
EMMA PITTSON 