Sunrise on Pike's Peak (Painting as of January 11, 2022)

Here's my painting of the morning sun on Pike's Peak as it looked on January 11th.  Here you can see rough preliminary work done on the two shapes in the foreground. This is acrylic paint and pasted tissue paper on cradled board  16 x 20 inches.  

Sunrise on Pike's Peak (Painting as of evening, January 10, 2022)

Here is my painting of the rising sun on Pike's Peak as it looked at the end of the day on January 10, 2022, after a second painting session.  I used acrylic paint and pasted tissue paper to begin work on the sky as well as the second row of mountains.  To be continued. . . .

Sunrise on Pike's Peak (Painting as of January 10, 2022)

Here is my painting of the sunset on Pike's Peak as it looked on January 10th (first painting day).  I used a combination of acrylic paint and pasted tissue paper to establish some of the shapes in the furthest mountain range. To be continued. . . .

Sunrise on Pike's Peak (Sketch for Painting)

Here is the sketch for my painting of the sunrise on Pike's Peak. (Painting reference is posted here January 18th).  I used conte crayon to draw the basic shapes right on the painting surface.

Sunrise on Pike's Peak (Digital Painting Reference)

This is a digitally altered* version of the photo I posted here yesterday. I took the original photo in the fall of 2005 from the spare bedroom of my friends' house in Colorado Springs.  The sunrise on the mountains was beautiful, and so I took the photo even though some trees were in the way. I recently decided to make this into a painting reference so I could paint that sunrise.  So I opened the image in Painter and got to work drawing over the trees and branches with digital chalk, matching the nearest color.  This took quite a while.  The colors of the sky and the mountain tops are as accurate as I could manage.  I didn't want to include rooftops etc., so I invented the shapes in the foreground, using the gray of one of the rooftops and the burnt orange of the aspen leaves.  This digital image is both photo and invention. I printed out a copy to use as a reference for a painting that combines memory and daydream.  To be continued. . . .

*Major understatement

Sunrise on Pike's Peak (Inspiration for Painting)

This is a photo that I took during a quick trip to Colorado, during the fall of 2005, I believe.  I visited friends in Colorado Springs, and stayed over. This was the view from their spare bedroom in the morning.  Although those aspen trees were lovely, I really wanted to take a picture of the sunrise on those mountains in the distance.  This photo was the result, and the best I could do. Even though it isn't a good photo,  I am glad I took the picture anyway because I recently decided to use it as the inspiration for a painting.  I decided to try to paint that sunrise, but it would take some work on the computer to turn this into a painting reference.  To be continued. . . .

Reposting: Tree in All Seasons (video)

Today I am posting this little video that I made on my iPad in 2019, with the Procreate app.  This little animation shows a tree in all seasons, and I am posting it to mark Tu b'shvat (New Year of the Trees), a Jewish holiday that starts at sundown tonight. As a child,  I fell in love with the idea of a new year for the trees, and   I still like this reminder to celebrate the trees and value the natural world,