Last update for "Dash"

After working on the horse head on the left, I pub some bluish color variation on the ground, which is a little foreign to the other part. I need to knock them down. Now I need to go back to finish the center part of the horse and the rider. I want to finish this painting this week.

Talapus Lake Hiking

Although I didn't bring my painting gear today when I walked up to Talapus Lake, I took some photos along the way as well as at the lake. The trail head can be reached from Exit 45 on I-90. It took me exact an hour to get to the lake. When I got there rain started falling consistently so I put a poncho on. Originally I planned continuing and going up to Olallie Lake. But snow was still on the ground, which had hid the trail. I might try again in two weeks.

2nd update of the day

Adjusted the hose head on the right pane as well as background trees and the bleacher further. Now I need to finalize the left pane including the white horse head. Then I would call it done. Probably one more update for this painting.

Started filling background at center

Started filling the background for the center part after make some adjustment of seat cushion shapes, which had kept annoying me because I couldn't get them right. Now the background bleacher started annoying me.

Artificial objects are always problematic to me.

Quckly filled the sky

Using 1+1/2" brush, quickly filled the sky. At this moment I don't care much how it realistic looks but just want to build up context as quickly as possible.

Still undecided for mono-tone part colors

Worked on the horse head a little bit but still can't decide what kind of colors I want to use for this section. Simple red variations wouldn't give me enough value variations that I want to have. Maybe red-purple would do it...

"Kootenay Sky, BC"

Started a new painting from my winter vacation in Kootenay Boundary, BC, Canada.

I thought about the composition quite a while before deciding to paint sky from one of photos. I just didn't want to paint too busy and detailed ground&mountains. Because that's NOT what the region is about. It's about endless mountains with rivers&lakes under the big sky. Yes, I want to paint the sky of the Kootenays.

I started drawing mountains after putting orangish underpainting.

A little Wet-on-wet

I couldn't paint anything a while due to a trip to Dallas, TX, and other day job related activities. I finally came back to this painting tonight. I experimentally a little wet-on-wet technique along the rider's arms, cloth, and head. I might need to make shadow part futher darker but I have some good feelings with the outcome. I'll try more from now on on this painting.