Painting process | April Light, Lake Wanaka
This is the process for my painting of the view from Roy's Peak, overlooking Lake Wanaka and the surrounding mountains in New Zealand.
Preliminary sketches and studies
I started with tiny thumbnail sketches working out the composition, edges and values.
Next, I did a larger black and white sketch bringing together the design decisions I made for the painting. It has to stand up as an interesting piece at this stage, or colour won’t salvage it!
Here is my colour study for this painting. I’ve taken my decisions from my black and white studies into this painting to check the success of the piece.
Preparing the board
I applied 3 coats of gesso and then toned the board with a mid-tone orange undercoat. In this photo I’m checking the value against the mid-tone of a cardboard box. Working from a middle value helps me better judge lights and darks in the painting.
The painting
I started with the lightest part - the sky and water.
This is the first layer. I’ve worked entirely with soft edges so as to focus on values.
This is the finished, signed painting! I particularly worked on refining the foreground texture and pushing the background mountains to dissolve into the clouds to give the entire painting a sense of depth.
The shadows in Queenstown have a distinct, striking strong blue hue that I loved capturing in this painting!
My very messy palette that created this piece.
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