A Work in Progress of Bogue Sound

24x24 on stretched canvas - $235
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I've been wanting to show a painting in progress, and I kept that goal in mind while I painted this painting of Bogue Sound. Unfortunately even using a tripod these pictures didn't come out amazing and are slightly blurred, but I hope they still illustrate my steps. This painting is 24x24. Above is the final version, and here's how I got to it:



I start by covering my canvas in a red gesso. Most of my paintings are heavy on blues and greens and I love a little bit of the warm red peeking through in the end:

Then I do a very quick sketch in pencil and fill in some of the dark areas with a reddish-purple of where the land meets water, and add in a little bit of the greens where the grass will be:


More filling in of the grassy areas:


Up to this point I've just been brushing in chunks of green color, but now I actually start trying to make it appear more grass-like in the front:


I finally decide I should add in some of the water behind the foreground so I can get to blending the grasses further back with the water:


And even more refinement of the foreground:

I'm happy with the front for now so I add in the basic sky value. I bring it in close to where distant trees will be:


I add in the darker values of the trees:


This one really caught a lot of glare, but I basically merged the trees with the sky with some careful blending:

The final part was to refine the trees and add in some details, like building some clouds and brightening the water and grasses. This picture was taken outside so it shows up better than the previous ones: