Bluebonnet Underlayer

Added some patches of blue for where the bluebonnets will generally be. Also added a few layers of paint and medium on the river, I want it to be glassy, so I'm building up layers to fill in the canvas weave. Up next I'll add in the cactus and yuccas, and work on the river.

Grass and River Underlayers

Basic shapes added for grass and colors added for the river.

Painting with drawing below it, and little practice painting at the bottom. I'm using the little one to test out the colors before I add them to the big canvas. 

Filling Things In

Under layers added for the trees in the background.

Green added to the background trees, and under layers for the front oak filled in.

Yellow underpainting for the foreground. 

Clouds!

Clouds added in.

Clouds with the hills darkened.

Detail of horizon.

Painting Away

Underpainting for the hills and beginning of the cliff face.

Sky filled in, clouds to be added later. The sky came out looking a little too late for the time of day I was going for, so I'll lighten the bottom a bit when I add the clouds. It should be dry enough this weekend to finish the sky.

Detail of cliff and sky.

Hills filled in. I'll add some details and probably change the color of the hills after the sky is done. 

Sample of the clouds,  made with leftover paint to see how the colors look together. 

Starting the Big Painting

Drawing started on the canvas.

Little sketch, big drawing, big painting, and little painting with yellow first layer. I'm trying things out on the big charcoal drawing before adding them to the painting, it's much easier to make changes that way. The cactus and flowers and river will be filled in later. I also haven't decided on the clouds, going to keep thinking about that for a while. 

Edge of the canvas taped off and covered to keep it clean, with string used to make guidelines.

Little sketch of the tree line and cliffs.

Reference Painting

Trying to draw the full size picture wasn't working out, so I moved to making a small reference painting to work from.

Pencil drawing, laying out trees.

Drawing by the ink sketch on canvas.

Sketch in grey ink on the canvas.

First layers of paint, establishing the major shapes.

Second layer of paint, refining things more.

Third layer of paint, flowers added in.

Some parts of the painting are still placeholders until I find the right things to go there-like the front of the river, the flower fields, and the sky. But I can start working on the big canvas soon, because enough parts are figured out.

The sky will have clouds soon, and the colors will be toned down to a more golden, evening light.