Day 2 of Portland journey Painting

Coming into the studio this morning I was feeling good about my painting start from yesterday. That was until I took a look at the painting. Everything I felt good about I didn't today. From design to color this painting needed help. It's funny, this always happens when I start a painting. The first day everything looks really great and I feel good when I leave that night and the next day I end up repainting everything. Well, almost.

End of Day 1 start

Looking at the painting with a fresh eye a few things popped out at me. First problem was in the design. I can see I split my canvas corner to corner with the strong diagonal of trees. I'll have to fix that, by bringing the sky, water and mountains over farther. This is a gorge so I think the mountains are really hills, but living in a place where they call us "Flatlanders", I would say they are mountains.

First changes to painting-working on mountains

Second problem needed to be fix - the mountains, sky, and water were all about the same size and length. One of these will have too become more dominate than the others. Since this painting is about depth, the mountains should become bigger, the water smaller and more curved, and the sky should be thin across the top of the painting.

Working on design and foreground.

After those two problems are fixed I can start working in the dark mass to pull out trees shapes. This is a big area of the painting and it will need some interest. but I don't want too take away from the focus of the painting. And that is the bright sun light spot on the highway and the white semi truck that is just coming out of the shadows.

Well that's the plan for day 2. Planing out what you want to get done each day helps keep a focus to the painting. I'll work one area at a time and won't get distracted with other parts of the painting. Time to hit that trail and get busy. Turning on the tunes, mixing up some new paint and turn those big hills into mountains. Lets see how my day goes.

Remember to be a Traveler in this project, just become friends with the Artist, have a great story to share, and some type of small souvenir like a postcard or used lift ticket to contribute to the blog and painting. Making new friends and learning about new places is what this project is about. Like I always say, "Come find me, I'll be painting somewhere." and join in the adventure to cover the world in paint.