WIP Above Eaton Canyon

Here is a short work-in-progress (12"x16") that allows the progression of this painting to be seen to completion. It is another painting looking up at the mountains above Eaton Canyon.

In this part I had blocked my colors working from top down. There is only color changes on the mountains and the greens and darks for the foreground foliage are a reddish undertone. This area will be in shadow.

I've now begun to add my lighter greens to the foreground here. I've also begun to shape the foreground too. I left to tops highlighted areas of the trees unpainted in the last stage so I wouldn't be painting wet on wet there. The mountains near the tree area was painted with a mix of paint and turpentine so it would tack up faster so I could paint the green highlights over the tacky paint. Still, it is better to leave your highlight areas unpainted as much as possible. Now further defining the foreground. The darks were painted with the initial block in but put in as a thin mix of paint/turps. I'm blending my lighter greens down into the dark green mix which gives the shadow effect. Blending into the darks takes away the flat look of the darks and gives them a 2 dimensional look.

Now finishing up the foreground area and adding detail to the mountains. At this point I thought the darks were too light and went back in and put in additional darks and blended again to meet the lighter areas. This really worked much better as you'll see in the finished painting below.And the finish....