Slow Progress and Early Determination

I've been spend too much time on this painting. I should have reached this level or stage much earlier. The problem was colors of the trees. Since I couldn't make right colors, the difference of greens kept me away from my satisfaction. Then I kept trying another color, another one, and again another.... I'll finish this this weekend. Or even earlier.

This one, on the other hand, wouldn't take so long to be finished. Shapes of cows are almost done. I started concerning about brush marks. I may finish this almost at the same time I finish the "yellow hill".

Along SH-10

I got up earlier this morning and drove my CR-V toward east on I-90. I was thinking painting Yakima River near Ellensburg on south side of the hwy. But I couldn't find any access road to get close to the river. However, that defeated feeling opened up an opportunity to browse the opposite side of the hwy. And by quite an accident, I found SH-10 along the river was a scenic road only 16 mile stretch connecting US-97 and SH-970 between Cle Elum and Ellensburg. I loved the scenery! Unfortunately I forgot my Fuji digital camera to take shots. But I painted there anyway.

Last time, when I painted at south of St. Helens, I forgot to put any red tubes in my french easel. This time, I brought permanent red, transparent iron exide, and arizarin crimson. But I didn't have to use much of those. I picked a spot I could see distinctive desert hills behing young and old sage brushes. I liked the color of young sage brush. I probably didn't capture it well in this painting. But I promised myself I would come back there to paint again.

Keep Running Cattle...

Another series of cattle. This time I'm going to challenge myself with a herd of cattle in action, stampede. The photo was taken back in June on my way to Columbia Gorge. I didn't intend to frighten them but while I was taking some photos they suddenly started running away. I enlarged the original and cut it into three pieces horizontally. This is the left piece. Since it was clouded, the photo was not so clear. Blurred after it was magnified. They were black. So, it would be challenging for me to paint them from the photo. I need to forget about the detail but focus on subtle color and value changes and exaggerate them in this series of painting. The size is 10"x25".

Light starts falling onto canvas

Well, as you know, I'm not an impressionist. Rather I establish impressions on the canvas as I work on the piece. I did it again. I'm still adjusting shapes of the cow. But now I started putting lights in Spring morning. I would probably put more contrast between lights and shadows than the reference photo.

More Green Layers

I keep adding more layers of greens for waves of trees. I haven't determined the final values yet though. I'm still experimenting. But it's about time to make the determination. At the same time it's time to get thicker.

West Seattle Street Fair

This weekend, a street fair is going on at Alaska Junktion. Some music performances can be seen on YouTube. I was a part of the festival by sitting at our artist association's tent in front of ArtsWest for two hours yesterday. What I was doing with another member artist of the association was promoting new members to our association. I was mostly sketching people walking by. Then another artist was talking to those people to explain who we are. Some kids asked me to sketch them. It didn't work so well, as you can imagine. But some had good capture of shapes.
Anyway, most importantly I enjoyed sketching and interacting with people there.

Cow's ready to walk

As I promised, widened the value range by making dark darker and light lighter. Colorwise, I want to make some lighter part to more orangish. Then I'll put more highlight to make it walk in spring sun. It's already getting to the final stage.