Winter Mountains (Acrylic Water Media)

Winter Mountains (Acrylic Water Media), a photo by randubnick on Flickr.

This is the painting I started two days ago, on February 17. Although I was pretty happy with the composition of the painting, I wanted to modify the color of the mountains, to get a little more contrast with the sky. I was afraid of losing what I already had, and I knew that with water media, trial and error with paint on paper can lead to muddled or muddy colors. So I decided to try a digital "dress rehearsal." I already had a photo of the painting in the computer, so I made four copies. I opened each file in Painter and tried adding transparent color overlays to each copy, using a different color each time: one was purple, one was rose, one was darker blue, and one was ice blue. Then I compared the four files to make a choice. In the end, I decided on ice blue. So then I returned to my paints, mixed up some ice blue, and went to work applying a slightly opaque ice blue wash. I also added additional texture to the mountain peaks, painting through my mesh grid. And then I was happy and the painting was finished.