Nature. Light and shadow.

More gouache sketches from the great outdoors. The main thing connecting these, or the reason I wanted to paint them is the play of light and shadow. I am trying to get the value and hue just right in the shadow areas, and simplify the areas of light and shade. Fairly happy with the result, although I think I am better at painting mountainsides than forests. The softness of the trees is just hard to get right.

Basically, I put the skies in first, and maybe also the water, as it is pretty much the same color. Then the major dark (shadow) areas because that is what really carries the picture. Transparent or semi transparent paint in the early stages and then thicker at the end.

The two top ones took about 1 1/2 hours and the bottom one less than that. Speeding up the process would probably help. And also working past the sketch stage to a finished painting. Deliberate goals like that helps focus the work.