I came across this reference photo and decided to paint a scene of it. I liked the distance of the mountains coupled with the dark contrasting oaks in morning light. I was about to paint it and then decided to try something new...add a deer crossing the road. We have lots of deer around here and so it only seemed natural to try and add one to a landscape painting.Here you can see my initial sketch. Very simple lines of the treeline, road and the deer.
I began with my sky colors and then the mountains base colors. I'll add the mountain shadows next. I've also added spots of sky color that will be behind the trees.
I began with my sky colors and then the mountains base colors. I'll add the mountain shadows next. I've also added spots of sky color that will be behind the trees.
Now I put in my mountain shadows and at the same time fill in an area that is toweards the valley floor...fields etc...nothing exact, just suggestive work here.
I now begin adding my darks. This is various mixes of Ultramarine Blue, Cadmium Yellow and Alizarin Crimson. 
It's time to put in thwe road and my mid greens. It's starting to come together now. I felt my deer looked a little low so I will move him up a bit before painting him in.
This is how I will move my deer up. I first paint in the area under the deer to fill in that area.
Now, I will scrub out the painted area that is still wet on the road where my new deer position will be. I use a small clean brush with turpentine to scrub the shape of the deer out. Wipe it off and soak up more of the now diluted paint until the area is clean.
I scrub out just enough of the wet paint to have a nice pretty dry area of canvas to paint in the new deer. I'm not the greatest wildlife painter so please excuse my deer. Maybe if I do a lot more deer I'll get them down better. I tried to keep good loose edges on my deer but I could have gone a little looser I think.
My favorite part of this painting is the nice contrast of the dark green oaks and the far side of the canyon mountains....nice!
And finally, the finished painting. I like it. It was fun adding some wildlife to this piece and really catching the distance of those mountains. I also like the very dark greens in the foreground which adds to the atmosphere of this painting. Trying to catch the light of the day is always a workout and there are a lot of painters who do it very well. It's always some thing to aspire to.
I bought some oak at Home Depot and cut it down to a thickness I wanted and began cutting the bevels and mitered corners. I glued and nailed it together with a new air-powerd brad gun since my old electric one couldn't handle the toughness of oak wood. The airgun made it a piece of cake to shoot the brads in. Once the glue had dried overnight I shot the brads and then began sanding. After that I wiped it down and rubbed oil/sealer/polisher to bring out that awesome golden oak finish. I mounted in to the frame and snapped pics to show you. 
I might make more of these later on when time permits since I have it figured out now. I'm still trying to build a workbench in the garage to work on these frame pieces but I'm backed up in painting since I've spent so much time preparing for the shows lately....all of that uis done so it is back to painting.
The gallery at MB is awesome...one of the best I've had my work shown in. The members are a great bunch of people and of course if you want awesome fish and chips you can't beat Morro Bay while on your trip to see art....trust me, I know! 
Anyway, this show will run for the month of January. An indicator of how well the show will be were all of the great comments made by members dropping off their art for the current show yesterday. Both Shirley and I were given some hearty pats on the back. The best thing of showing your work is the positive comments from your fellow artists.
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....
And this is when it was all set up ready to roll later that night. I'm a happy clam...tired, but happy.
I was trying to do looser trees and adding colors into the sky and distant mountains...mainly a pink hue to break up the normal colors I use. I like the results but consider it like baby-steps towards experimenting. I find it really hard to try certain things with my art. Change is necessary for growth in ones work I think so I keep at it.
This was done on birch panel which I'm finding really fun to work on when doing PA. The paint really sticks to it well and helps when trying to finish a piece in one sitting.
Here is what I came up with....
Not a bad little painting. Plus, it gave me practice on doing water which I need more of. A fun little painting. I'm a member of the California Art Club and will be going to their painting day, or Paint Out as they call it, right here at the lake. This will be my first time painting with the club so I'm trying to get in as much practice as possible before looking like a fool out there this Saturday. So far, things look like they will be ok.
After I was happy with the sky I began to add my trees and then foreground. The trees were a dark value of green with some red in my ref so I kept it that way. Now that it is all finished up I wish I hd made it a little lighter in overall value there if only becuase it is hard to photograph this dark a value. It works in real life here so I won't change it now. The foreground grasses were a Yellow Ochre but I was almost out and used Raw Sienna mixed with Alizarin Crimson and some White and came up with this orange tint. It looked ok at first but once on there I hated it...too strong. I later bought more YO and mixed white and AC to get what I wanted. That's what I get for being lazy. I keep that white edge there when blocking in the colors to keep them from mixing. As I tweak the greens I'll brush up into the sky area...this gives it the last minutes of time to setup before the green goes over it. Those sky colors will cause the greens to go blue grey. I could have waited but I wanted to get body if it on the first day. Day 2 was for working the foreground colors. 
Day 2...
The skyholes in the tree and patchy areas in the greens were added on day2. I also went back in and added some highlights to the lower right of the sky. I think it came out ok but wish I had gone slightly darker in the sky and slightly lighter in the trees on the hills. I also think I need to find a better way to do grasses like this. So many things to learn as you go.
