Paint Holstein

I started a new cow painting after finishing the seagulls yesterday. This time, and first time, I'm going to paint Holstein. It probably wouldn't change much from Hereford so far I painted. I worried the composition more than colors. I wanted to put the dark green forest in the background, at the same time keep more foreground pasture including the wire fence in the frame to counter balance. As the result, the main subjects became smaller but I could think any other way to work. 18x15.

Establishing Context

It's been almost three weeks since last time I touched this piece. I'm still trying to establish context of this painting at the same time adjusting key shapes of the rocks. I might need to touch on trees before getting into more details of rocks.

Never Underestimate...

Well, for more than a week, I couldn't make much progress on this painting, which I thought I could finish faster than usual.
I was wrong.
The main problem was the colors for water surface and reflections on it. The other is I'm still getting the shape right for one rock, which is troubling the ripple shape to be unnatural, or at least not what I want them to be. Once I fully recovered from flu, I need to put more focus on it and allocate more time to complete this piece.

Sharping edges of water surface

At the same time adding reflection of a wood stick, which is outside of the frame, to the left, I refined top half of water surface with a little linseed oil to make the color mixture smoother. I think it worked as I expected.
The bird on the left got more shape defined. Now I need to move on to the bottom half of water and birds on the bottom right corner.

Can't determin the colors

Gradually defining colors and shapes of seagull figures at the same time redefining colors of background water and rocks. But I couldn't get or determine the right colors for the backgrounds. I know I need to mix more amount and cover wider area with the same base colors. Otherwise it would be a little different every time I mix a color, which would cause inconsistency of colors and the painting would start deteriorating.

Composition is clear

I like this composition better than "West End". It's much simpler. I'm almost sure now I would enjoy working on the details with this painting. I need to experiment more with water surface.