Beginning to Add Color to 'The Hill in Winter'

I finished 21-001 “River Sunset” and wasn’t ready to leave the studio. This one was still in its initial charcoal sketch, so I decided to add a little color to  starting with pan pastel for the under painting beginning with a light gray. I put some blue in the mountains and a hint in the snow.

What was challenging in this scene is, in using two photos to create the composition, the skies don’t match. This meant I had to create how I thought the sky would work best.

I added Mount Vision dark blue gray for the heavier clouds. Next a lighter blue gray for highlights to the clouds and then I layered in Sennelier pale gray blue. I experimented with swirls and swipes to achieve in interesting effect.

What was different about this painting, instead of working on the entire sky all at once like I usually do, once I had the initial couple layers down, I worked smaller sections at a time creating contours movement. I like the results. Am I done with the sky? Probably not, ha-ha.

I put some navy blue along the mountain ridge. I’m not sure if it’s too blue yet. Of course, once other aspects start coming along, I’m sure it’ll look fine. I’m excited about this one.