When the rocky ground had dried, I decided it was too dark and a bit busy, that there wasn’t enough of a sun-baked feel to it. So I harshly obliterated some of what I’d done with some titanium buff (I’ve found that it pays to be bold when doing this, rather than tentative; I can always paint in more detail again).
Waiting for the foreground I dry, I moved onto the leaves of the tree. The foliage was applied with a painting knife. I used chromium oxide green, mixing in increasingly more titanium buff. I’d put a little paint on the knife, dab this onto the canvas, moving around to cover each branch, then mix in a bit more titanium buff and go round again.
Never one to waste paint (I usually squeeze only a minimum onto my palette, but had misjudged how much green I would need), I used what was left once I’d finished the leaves of the tree in the rocky foreground. My reasoning was that it would help tie the painting together, even though the landscape didn’t actually have that color in it. I wasn’t entirely convinced by the result, but left it overnight to judge it fresh the next day.
As you can see in the final painting on the next page, I still didn’t like it the next day and painted over it. You can’t see it in the photo, but in the final painting there’s just a hint of green showing in a few places which I think does work. Next time I’ll be more restrained about it.
