Small Changes

I have always believed that it is the little things that define and separate my work. In this case, I thought I had the right colors mixed to complete this little piece of sky. But, after an hour or two of carefully laying down this gradient, I realized that the top color I started with was just too blue.


The nice thing about working on panel is that you can erase any wet paint with a razor and a rag. So with a couple of flocks of my wrist I erased a mistake hours in the making, and restarted the sky, a few hues lighter.


But don't try and adjust your screen; I can barely see the difference either, but trust me, it is there. At this point, here are the three in this series waiting for a foreground to be complete.


-jb.

The Under Layers

So here are the three Arizona paintings with the under layer complete.


I generally tend to overstate colors here, or wash them out to create tonal values. In this case, a bit of the haze from south Carolina skies crept in out of habit, but this layer serves as an excellent comparison to really pin down the exact colors I want in the next layer.

-jb.

The Arizona Paintings

From the desert panoramics, I found the places that intrigued me most, the points of interest that intersected, and cactuses.


Using a burnt sienna ground that naturally builds a warmth into the painting (and in three all around coats, seals the panel) I sand in between each layer then I literally trace the shapes of importance onto the panel, and sand again.


The resulting lines give me reference points for the first layer of the painting.


-jb.