Hills and Lake

Saturday was an interested experience. In spite of the volleyball tournament going on, we set up the scaffolding and I began working on the hills again. A lot of interest from the crowd and a lot of questions too. Everyone wanted to know how long it would take to finish and where the landscape was from. I explained that while it was imaginary, it was based off reference photos from our area. The painting session went well; I detailed some of the hills I had roughed in the previous session. I have noticed something that keeps happening with me. When I paint an area, I need to also paint the next area to be able to then go back and tweak the first area. When I had finished the sky, the last and lightest band looked wrong. I went ahead and painted the lavender hills and was able to see what needed to be adjusted with the horizon. The lavender hills didn't look right until the green hills were roughed in, then I went back and touched up the tones of the lavender hills. The large white of an unpainted area seems to throw off the color balance. So, when I wrapped up on Saturday I decided to rough in the water of the lake before finishing the detail of the hills.

Sunday morning, I brought along all of the bands of color I had used for the sky and evaluated where the lightest tone of the lake should began. It began with sky band number 10. The lake was the opposite of the sky, going from light to dark and was a lot easier than I had imagined it. My grid lines helped as well and knowing that all I was trying for was a value decision, not the final color of the lake. Once the ripples and shading are added, the base color won't be quite as noticeable, so I didn't even stop to clean my brush and blended in the bands as I went. Very pleased with the tone. It looks a little bright right now, but as detail is added, that will change.