Castle Ludlow

A friend of mine sent me a picture he took of Castle Ludlow. I took some artistic freedom and made the castle much larger than it really is by making the trees smaller and pushing it back into the mist. I also surrounding foliage/lighting and made it very foggy. The castle and bridge were drawn in pencil and underpainted with black gesso. I blotted in some tiny distant trees in the black gesso too. The area above the bridge is liquid white and below it is liquid clear.

I did the bridge with large bricks using only the knife and marbling the paint. I went back over it with the filbert to add texture and highlights.

This is my fourth painting ever and I’m pretty happy with it. Took me an hour to sketch, an hour to paint in with black gesso, and one four hour session with oils. It was also my first time painting grass and I had a lot of fun putting a lot of extras in it. I was able to use the knife to scratch in all the little weed stalks since that area was underpainted with black gesso.