Sharing the Painting Process

Earlier I posted a series of photos taken while I painted "Tomales Bay Tangents."  The process of painting a landscape has been, for me, a bit different than painting a floral.  With the florals I tend to work less from top to bottom, and paint all over the surface of the painting throughout the process.  However, I still am always thinking, "Back to Front," to be sure that I don't have to work too much around foreground aspects of the painting, while trying to place the background.  But, I have to say that I am still adding to the background a fair amount, all through the process.  This ensures that the colors I use in one part of the painting, I include in other parts, too, so there is a more cohesive look to the finished painting.   As I choose the pastels, I set them aside, in a "working palette," so that I am not always having to search for them, when I want to use that particular color again.  Sometimes I set up the initial palette at the outset, judging from my photo which colors I think I might use, then I add as I go.  This helps me to be able to just jump right in.  In "Sincerely Yours," below, you can follow the progression, and see some of these aspects.  Another thing that I like to do is to add depth by making the edges on the focal point much more crisp than those in other areas of the painting.  You can see that the petals in the background, and even the bottom left foreground, are slightly out of focus.  Then, the pinks in the background are very blurred, to just hint at other flowers in the distance.

Enjoy following, below, the process of painting "Sincerely Yours."  I invite you to follow my BLOG to see more of my paintings in process.