So what else did I do to this painting before I stopped and declared it finished? The green got eliminated from everywhere but the leaves of the tree, the rocks got worked on again to make the lights and darks more subtle. Oh, and the lower part of the sky had a thin glaze of titanium buff on it at some stage, because the sky’s not as blue towards the horizon as it is higher up.
I was pleased with the resultant contrast between the sky (which while ‘busy’ is smooth if you run your hand over it) and the tree and rocky ground, which are quite textured (especially the tree trunk and leaves). I like the slightly abstracted rocky foreground, with the rocks becoming more defined towards the tree, which is the most realistic element in the painting.
While I was working on this painting, the about whether larger or smaller paintings sell better was happening on the Painting Forum. This left me wondering whether I could paint small, as I usually work big. So as soon as I finished this painting, I got out a small canvas to try and so a “small version” (see Step 7 for a photo of the result).
