Today's painting is of houseboat in backwaters at Alappuzha in Kerala. There is beautiful light in this and the feel of morning boat ride.
Reference is a great photo I found in Alamy https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-alappuzha-backwaters-kerala-south-india-asia-95421622.html
Sketch
Subject was positioned in the third and then the horizon and position of key trees marked.
Process
I started on a good note with the far background trees and bushes .. then it was a seesaw journey.. the trees on the left went terribly bad.. so I was about to ditch this.. it was painted too thick... Then as a rescue effort tried to stay it and lift it off.. it worked.
Added another layer of plants and then it was good.. at that time realised I have made a mistake with the colour of coconut palm.. again wet it and lifted some colour.. luckily the paper stayed good.
This being handmade cotton paper, is not reinforced with gelatin sizing.. so it would have torn easily.. but I think 440 gsm is good.. somehow it stayed together.. may be it's that lucky painting day 😊
Next was to paint the water and it didn't come up as planned. The water in these landscapes are green and I am not very good at painting it.. these days water haven't worked well for me. I stopped it there and moved to the right side. It came up well.
Like I said it's a seesaw journey. Finished the boat next and finally went and painted the water little darker. This time more carefully trying to paint wet on wet. It worked well this time.
In th end realised that I have made the coconut palm far more thicker than it should be.. almost double.. or I am not sure if the boat is smaller. Somewhere the proportion got lost 🤦♂️.. but it's ok.. I never expected to finish this painting.. so I am happy with how it is now.. the rescue mission is success 👍
Final
Total time: 2hrs
11x15in
440gsm handmade cotton paper
