Wooden Footbridge

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The Old Wooden Footbridge

This is my last painting from the Fast and Fun Landscaping acrylics book. It’s got a lot going on! I started with a textured yellow background again, then blocked in the grass with a scrubby brush. The trees took shape under fan and scrubby brushes double-loaded with greens, oranges, and reds. Next I put the stream in (have you ever seen a creek that shade of blue??), with a darker stripe for the bridge shadow. I sketched the bridge in with paint, rather than pencil, filled it out with brown, and added a railing on top. I like how the lower arc came out, but not the top—it’s lopsided!

Donna Dewberry’s book also had several demos on painting a continuous scene across two, three, or even four canvasses, like a mural. They hung side-by-side or in a window-pane formation. These paintings didn’t need frames as they were just mounted on the wall. Although I didn’t do any of these projects, they gave me the idea for a painting I would soon do: my two-canvas farm scene “Autumn Pastoral.” This book sure hit the spot with my style of painting! I’d love to own it someday.