It’s taken me a little while, but I now kind of like what I've done. The colors need to be lightened and the willow needs some working, but I am beginning to feel optimistic about the painting.
I start to go over the background trees and as I do this I decide I may want a different look. I use the Winsor blue mixed with a bit of sap green and cadmium yellow for the background tree on the left, and also add a bit of those colors to the tree on the right.
Nope, don’t like that too much, so I play with my greens, whites and the yellow a bit to see what happens. I lighten the background more with some cadium yellow and white along with the burnt umber and put in some foliage and ground cover with the yellow.
Now I get to the weeping willow. I try giving it branches, not very good; I try rounding it off some, seems a bit better.
I don’t like the yellow look it has so back to the sap green, a bit of burnt umber for shadows and a little white. I keep going over it until I have the look I want.
I add some water plants in front of the willow and on the lower right-hand side and have decided I want the willow in front of the bridge. I now go down to the pond and start glazing in some white along with the Winsor blue. I decide to add a bit of sap green to the water.
Although Marion’s photo didn’t show any lily pads I have decided I want them in my painting. I still need to give the pond some shape, but will do that tomorrow, for today my painting session is over.
