Work in Progress, early stage

WIP P Massif

A few days ago I mentioned my nephew who climbs rocks. Big ones. He also takes pictures. He has hiked and climbed around the glaciers in Patagonia and I've painted from some of his photos. This is one of the really big rocks there, and I happened to find a picture of it with the sun slanting on it giving it an orange glow.
I've blocked in the peak and some of the surrounding rock. There is more lavender in the sky than shows in the photo, but now I'm working on the foreground. I've blocked in some of it, but it still needs some modeling. I'd also like to hi-light the snow with some of the orange light and shade it with a bit of purple.
There is still a problem with the rock looking "soft." It would be good to look at other painters works to see how they have handled rocky landscapes.
Time to look up some mountain painters!


Here is an earlier painting of one of my nephew's photos:

Paine Massif  peaks

It's framed in bright silver, photographed in warm light.

Almost Spring, but I liked yesterday better!

It's so much easier to scan or take photos of watercolors. (I'm whining again, huh?) This is an 8X10 acrylic of a photo my nephew took of the Paine Massif in Patagonia. Looks a bit fuzzy, doesn't it? He does his tourism vertically, hence the earlier painting of Kilimanjaro. This was a different challenge from painting California, there certainly weren't any bushes or trees.

The plein air season is on it's way. It's such a wonderful way to paint, competing with the constantly changing light, the wind, dust, but it's a very vital way to paint and I need practice. Watercolors are an excellent way to go, but they dry out so fast. Acrylics dry out very fast too, and can't be re-wet, but a wet palette can really help ameliorate that. Perhaps oils may be the ticket. Evidence of my inexperience.

Once again breakfast became a still life, this time in acrylic.