Final Painting

Niagara River Morning . 30 x 40 . Oil on Linen

Here is after a whole day of modifications, lightening the far land forms, creating more mists in the water at the land form on the upper right, modifying the pines, adding more pines, and lightening the foreground shadows at the right a bit . Notice I also added rocks to the shaded areas which I did because I wanted to add more pinks and orange . I also added a small pale yellow tree in front of the tall one because I noticed the contrast between the top of the rock and the shadow areas of the tree attracted too much attention. By putting the yellowish shade of the tree beside the yellowish top part of the rocks it eliminated most of the contrast. I also put some highlights on the extreme right of the canvas to show the direction of the light .

Almost done just needs a few highlights here and there. Now it is time to put this away


Here is the finished shadow areas. I also tried to do some modifications on the tall pines on the upper right.

finished up the rocks then started working the yellow trees in the lighted areas. I also started working on the shaded foliage on the bottom right .

Then I block in the water and put a dark wash on the foreground foliage, also starting on the tree forms.






Here I work on the back islands trying to finish it as much as possible working from dark to light.




I usually work from back to front so I finish up the sky to point of finish that I am happy with. I also block in the darks of the foreground trees.

first 30 x 40 demo

This is a step by step of a painting that I did from a photo from my trip to Ontario, Canada and the Niagara region. The photos I used are from a roadside scenic view of the Niagara river. This is my initial rough sketch using turps and a neutral brown mixture. The surface is stretched Carleton DP by Fredrix .