How I measure, Batenkill @ Rexleigh covered bridge.

34 F  some sun early, cloudy.

I went over to Shushan today and ended up at Rexleigh, the Rexleigh covered bridge over the Battenkill River.  It took way too long to find, but when I got there I wondered why I hadn't been here yet. This is a small panel, 10 x 8 , and I ran out of time (anything else new)

#267
10 x 8
$200

People have been asking me questions about stuff, like how I "fit" the painting into the landscape, I don't know if this will answer that, but it is how I measure.

If I think I can make a scene work, and there are limitless possibilities, I try and picture how the rectangle will "crop" the various elements, so where the horizon is, and where the right and left boundaries fall, and how "big" it is. This is of course as it's seen from one point: where your eye is. (it's often hard to go back to this spot, but that's a different problem)

The distance from left to right "line up" with the right edge of my panel, and I'll make a  note in my head: "so the scene starts at the left side if the big rock under the bridge and goes to the spot where the snow stops under the rock next to the water". Then just picture a rectangle the same size next to the panel, you don't need anything else, just your eye.

 This is how I find where elements go on the panel, my thumb is at the edge of the snow and the end of the brush is the edge of the painted snow on the panel, this way you can get the placements of all of the elements. I'll also check for horizontal, by just going across between panel and scene, and do quick diagonal checks, (didn't get a photo of that).

My sun left me, and the grey muted everything, I wan't sure about the bridge and how that truncated and painted form would behave, I had a hard time placing my eye, or maybe it's the rest of me because I was standing on large rocks, and had to stoop a bit, you'd think I'd know how to set myself up after so many times.

 This is when thing don't look good.

I very rarely paint vertically, I know why.

 It seems to take as much time to do a smaller panel, at this point I'm out of time and late to pick up Hope from school for her Orthodontist appointment!

Here is where it ended up.

Here is the scene at the start, the sun was peeking around the clouds from time to time, at first, then it stayed cloudy.