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Point of View

This is a watercolor sketch I did a few years ago of my sister’s home.  I had wanted to see if I could do a view of her home looking up the hill through some of the branches of a tree at the baseof the hill. It was really kind of fun trying to get the angles of the deck and porch and the small portion of the house I could see. The other challenge was getting the leaves and branches to read well in the foreground.  I found that I needed to darken the foreground branches and leaves to get it to have depth. I like to play around with different points of view.

46 Comments

  1. I think you have achieved it well. I can see from this angle that the road is leading upward to the porch of the house and the plants on the foregroud did their job well too. Nice painting.

  2. Ooh, pretty! I feel like a little kid, hiding in my “fort” and checking out the house to see if anything interesting is happening.

    • That is what it looks like, Cindy! I was searching for when I’d viewed something like this from behind branches and couldn’t remember. Thank-you for that!

  3. I love your unusual perspective – and this one’s a triumph of colour Leslie! The observation has an air of secrecy about it, like you’ve stumbled upon the house and are looking at it for the first time:) The leaves in the foreground really frame the vista and I love the way the colours bleed into the paper (another thing that’s great about watercolour). This gives the scene a dreamy quality! Another success for you Leslie!

    • I kind of liked that bleeding, also, Lynda. I felt the leaves would blur out in areas and be distinct in others, kind of like how things begin to blur out to the periphery of our vision when you bring it up close. Thanks, Lynda!

  4. I love the path!

  5. This is beautiful, Leslie! I found myself ducking, to get past those branches, to get a better view of the porch! 🙂

  6. I think you’ve done a fine job. Quite an accomplishment!
    The leaves in the foreground, darkened as you said really gave the overall piece excellent depth.

  7. A a cool point of view it is too.
    I really like it

  8. Leslie, I’m afraid I’m no where near my art supplies at this time. I’ve been abroad.

  9. dear leslie,

    this i can comment well. i am an architect so i am trained to do perspectives. what you said about the foreground and the background is correct. it really depends on which part of the drawing you want to highlight.

    i think the structure is a little distorted from an angle. but this is quite unnoticeable because of the pathwalk. it directs the observer’s focus away from the whiteness of the balustrade and the porch. plus the foreground of leaves which serves as a border for the drawing catches much of the attention.

    but i can say, that the combination of colors are okay. all the best to you.

    • I can assure you that it is probably distorted, Marvin. 🙂 I don’t use rulers or measurement devices other than my pencil to eyeball angles and draw and paint freehand. Got it as close as these old eyes saw it and my shakey hand can manage to work it in. I just hope it reads well enough for viewers to figure out. You have a great eye! Thank-you!

  10. Very nice, Leslie. I love paintings done from unusual perspectives, and particularly like the view through the gap in the surrounding leaves. It could be how a small animal or bird views the house.
    🙂

    • Thanks Val! Actually while I was down there my sister’s cat was with me wondering what the heck I was doing in her woods. 🙂

  11. Yes, we’re having fun. Thanks Leslie. I’ll see if I can get some good pics while away.

  12. Nice work. I think this is like your walkway under the bridge. It really involves the viewer. Nice work!

  13. I love the colours too, and the feeling that I am hiding and spying. Now that you have mentioned the cat, I can’t get it out of my mind that it is rubbing up against me as I look out at the house.

    • Thanks, Kirsty! Her name is Little Bear. I’ll never forget visiting my sister some years ago now and she had a wren house hanging from under an eave. Little Bear had gotten herself onto the roof and hung on with three paws and wrenched her body around, extending her free paw and tilted that little house up and took a peek. I don’t know how she did that without falling. 🙂

  14. You have such a dream like style that is so cool. I do feel like a voyeur or a small child hiding from this angle, and I promise I’m neither!

    • Thank-you, Ryan. I like that “dreamlike”. LOL, I know you are neither! 🙂

  15. Great painting as usual. What strikes me most about this one is the perspective. The top and bottom foreground leaves add great depth, especially with the way you watercolor in shadows. Awesome 🙂

    • Thank-you, Adam! I have been enjoying your wonderful photos, lately!

  16. I was looking at your painting and thinking about what you said about playing around with different points of view. If anyone is good at that it’s you! I like the way you see the house through the leaves and the path leading the viewer’s eye.

    When I read Jay’s comment, it hit me that this is a similar visual design.

  17. This tells a pleasant story of sunny days and shady gardens – I can hear the bees humming

    • That is right on the money, Stephen. It was hot and bees humming when I painted here. I just returned from a trip there and we paddle boated and saw turtles and baby geese and a family of muskrats. Was great fun. No time for a painting but took some photo references. YAY! Thanks for the visit!

  18. Your mastery of colors is breath-taking. They flow and yet distinctions hum in all the right places. I love the therapy of your offerings here!

    • Thank-you, JRuth! Much of my painting is therapeutic I think. I love creating and I really don’t draw or paint for any other purpose than the joy and the fact that it is NEVER BORING!

  19. Love this perspective, Leslie!
    Like Ryan said, it feels as if you are peeking like a kid, hiding in the cool, shaded woods.

    • Thank-you, Karen! I was peeking up at it and it was fun trying to capture it.

  20. Leslie, I love the point of view on this – it really draws the viewer in and makes a very interesting painting. And the colors are stunning. Every time I see your work, it makes me want to try watercolors again (recently, I have been trying to learn to work with acrylics). Thanks for the inspiration! -Laurie

    • Thank-you, Laurie, that is a wonderful comment. If I can encourage anyone’s interest in this medium, I feel it’s a good day! So many give up on it too quickly. Acrylics are wonderful, too and there is much you can do with them. I am horrible with them.They always dry faster than I want them to so I guess I must be a watercolorist at heart. I believe there is some truth to the fact that some artists can create with any medium and some are captured by one or two.

  21. Great perspective and composition! The colours are strong and clean. This is a rather joyous painting, but after your explanation, I found I had to change my perception. I thought the house was down in a hollow!
    K

    • LOL. Back to the drawing board! What I tried was to show the dark of the underside of the deck and only the ridge of and front of the steps because that is all I could see of them. I am glad you could enjoy it from any view, K! Thank-you!

  22. I really like the framing of the image with the branches, I feel like I’m there! Well done on the darks vs. lights, it always takes me a while to figure out what should be lighter and what darker when there is an image so in the foreground, but I think you’ve nailed it.

    • Thank-you, K. You are not the only one who struggles with value. I think that is one of the things I strive to see. Oh to be free enough to have it come easily! You made me feel great today by saying I made you feel there!


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