Sunlight and Storm Clouds (Oil Bar Painting as of June 23, 2013)

Sunlight and Storm Clouds (Oil Bar Painting as of June 23, 2013), a photo by randubnick on Flickr.

I worked on this painting again this morning. (This oil bar painting is based on one of my recent photos, posted here June 19.) I didn't have a lot of time to paint today, so I decided to focus on the back-lit shadows on some of the trees. Of course, that forced me to work on where those trees are, which is harder than it might look. In the reference photo, there is one tree with dark red foliage, so I painted that in with a little magenta. Then I used more magenta to indicate where the shadows should be. I was getting lost in all that green and using the magenta helped me to see; besides, with all that green, the eye "wants" to see some red. But these may not be the final colors, anyway. I added some more light areas in the distance, creating a sense of space. And most important, I kept checking and revising to make sure I wasn't violating the laws of physics by making my trees transparent or by putting two trees in the same space at the same time. To be continued. . .