Ben and Loch

I often take photos along the way - here is the 'story' of this piece

Stage one: ground and inital drawing

I usually lay down a coloured ground - purple is a favorite, especially for landscape. Then I will draw in the main elements with a small brush and thin paint.

Basic ground and inital drawing

Stage two: building the sky

Next, it is the sky - not complete, but roughed in with sufficient detail and depth to set the scene and the nature of the mood of the piece. I also out down some underpainting for the lighter parts of the loch where sky and clouds are reflected.

Starting the build the sky

Stage three: building the landscape

Next comes a combination of adding in the more distant parts of the landscape and building up some of the mid-ground as well as adding some of the colours that I want to underlie the foreground.

Building the background, and a sense of mid- and fore-ground

Stage four: Building on up

After this, it is more iterative - working on different parts, building up the detal, checking the balance, and working more broadly across the canvas, adjusting colours and tones

Building on up I

Building up II

Stage 5: Adusting and finishing

Then, it is time to look and contemplate - what needs a bit more attention?

In the adusting and finishing stages of this piece I modified the outline of the Ben, checked the shadows, softened some of the contrasts in the sky and brouhgt some of the mist more clearly across the mountain. By this point I had already addressed some of the changes needed in the reflections. I finished by strengthening some of the foregound mark-making.

The finished painting