Gold Lake - painted in the studio March and April 2004
In March, I began work on "Gold Lake". This is a painting of a beautiful Sierra lake that my family and I hiked to last summer. Follow along with my progress if you like, I will try to keep the posts current. I'm working out a new technique that's sort of a combination of some plein air techniques and my early transparent oil technique, so if nothing else, this should prove to be interesting...
I first sketched a relatively detailed draft of the scene in pencil and "fixed" it down to the canvas with workable fixative.
Next, I begin to "draw" with my paint brush, drawing in all the dark areas in the rocky formation behind the lake. I have my reference photo which I blew up and printed out on a color printer taped to my canvas for reference.
Here's a close up to show how much (or how little) detail I'm recording...
Once I've finished laying down the darks in my mountain, I paint in my sky and call it a day. I have to wait for my paint to dry for my next step. There's more on the next page...
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