Foxen Canyon Evening

Lately I've been getting better at blocking in of masses for areas in my paintings....ok, well I think Im getting better at it. I used to paint a lot of the elements in my work individually as the painting progressed. That took more time, more mixing and probably not the best way to do a painting. I used to really only block in my darks and paint everything else on the fly so to speak.

I started blocking in masses of color when I started painting meadow scenes...especially meadows with large clumps of bushes in them.


This probably seems redundant to other painters but to me it has become one of those eye openers artists go through...simple things that make life easier. I don't know why I didn't see it sooner.


Anyway, here you can see my blocking in of the foreground awaiting the detailing, some of which I've already started on the back bushes below the trees.

Here you can see what the painting looks like once all of the details are filled in.

I suppose I've done this method for the last bunch of paintings without giving it much thought. I would have hesitated from doing this scene before due to the bushy foreground but now see these as something to accomplish, or conquer, in a painting...not as something to avoid.

The strange way we artists think!