Workshop Alvaro Castagnet, day 4

Today we went to Marsaloxx, a fishing village in southern Malta. Alvaro looked around the dock a bit and decided to paint past and over some big boats. It was hard to find a place to paint, there were boats everywhere. He composed very freely. Used viridian green in the water which did not turn out well. Added a shadow to the foreground to make the water shine. Worked a lot with the focal point, the boats in the foreground. I was very fascinated by how easily and smoothly he got to the city in the background. Very good.

We then had to paint ourselves. It was difficult to find a place because the sun was strong. I found a spot next to the cookie vendors, a piece of their awning giving me some shade. Once again the forces of the weather forced the choice of location to paint from. I tried to make the city in the background as Alvaro had done. Behind a car sat a man in a chair in the shade and I took a few steps and placed him in the picture, the car I removed, I did not paint it. I thought it turned out well and Alvaro came by and liked it 😉

When the picture was then finished, Alvaro thought that I had made some parts too dark. There should only be one “darkest dark” and that would have been around the figure. The buildings were okay and the boats were well painted, but they were too dark. The red shade was good. He was absolutely right and at some point I will repaint this picture.

Then he did a demo below the square over the water and the boats. He completed the picture piece by piece and then completed at the end. He talked about doing the focal point first. What was interesting about his picture was that the boats were not Maltese boats, but he made ordinary boats with masts. It turned out very well.