Reflections (Oil Bar Painting as of July 29, 2013)

Reflections (Oil Bar Painting as of July 29, 2013), a photo by randubnick on Flickr.

I working on this painting this morning, and here is how it looked when it was time to quit for the day. I am using oil bars to paint this landscape, loosely based on a photo that I took last summer at Bradley Palmer State Park (Topsfield, MA). The reference photo is posted here on June 14, 2013. Recently I made changes in the shapes along the shoreline, so today I worked on modifying the reflections so the shapes match. To do this, I turned the painting and the reference photo sidewise. First I adjusted the reflected shapes to come as close to a "mirror image" as I could. Then I adjusted the angle of the reflected shapes just a bit. In the photo, they angle back by a few degrees. I don't know why that is (refracted light? angle of the sun? moving water?) but I know what I see, so I am painting that in. I am happier with the shapes of the reflections, but I plan to adjust the color and texture because the shapes look too flat at the moment. I also added a little more blue to the shadows of the foliage and edge of the shoreline.