New Painting (post #6)

Today's the day!  I rubbed off my masking fluid from the left hand side at the top.  Here's a picture of what it looks like once it's off...Note that some of those areas now look white, while others have some color in them from the fact that I put mask down in some areas after I had already applied a wash of color.  I will now study this top left area and decide where to add color.  See also the second picture below, which shows you a bird's eye view of the whole thing with the mask removed top left.

Mask removed from top left side of painting

Next I'm adding paint to the top left corner where I removed the mask earlier today.  Can you tell the difference below?  I worked on the branches of the tree so that I will later know where to build the clumps of leaves around them.  Here's the close up of that section, with just the trees and branches emphasized.

Tip:  Don't paint branches where you THINK they should go.  Every tree is different and the Lowcountry's live oaks are built a certain way...study them and take lots of reference photos for when you get to that painting that needs more definition than what your working photo is capable of giving you.

Tip #2:  A good rule of thumb is to never make one branch cross over another with a resulting "X marks the spot" effect.  Change the composition if that's what's visible on your photo (or in nature in front of you).

And below here is that bird's eye view so you can compare to the BEFORE.

p.s.  It's hard to know how often to photograph and post images for you to see.  I can hear some of my students saying "enough already"!  But I hear others saying they want to see even more!  Maybe this is a good amount (?)....Let me know if you're learning something new, or whether it's a good refresher for you to come with me on this journey.  I'm very pleased with my progress so far....I get excited to get up in the morning and get to the studio for another day of painting!  (p.s#2.:  I forgot to tell you I added a bit of color to the water.  I've decided I want some color in both the water and eventually the sky so that the plumes stay the whitest whites overall, for extra drama).