Friday, December 11, 2009

Crabtree Creek - Near Little Switzerland


This is the second painting I completed that is inspired from a recent trip to Western North Carolina. This painting depicts an area of Crabtree Creek about 1/4 mile up from Crabtree Falls. The picture was taken on a crisp autumn day in early November.

In choosing the color selection I used more vibrant colors than what is shown in the photograph. I started painting the water with a selection of my favorite blues including: Cobalt Blue, Indigo and Midnight Blue. The actual color shown in the picture is more of a brown, black – but I could not resist taking advantage of the vibrancy of these incredible blues. This picture was taken on a clear day early in the morning – my intent with the far background of yellow and bright greens was to give the effect of sunlight popping through the trees. Unfortunately what I found was there was not enough contrast with first tier of foliage vs. the trees that are in more of the foreground area. To gain this contrast I used a technique that I previously reserved for water effects. I mixed some Hookers Green and some glazing medium and poured the mixture into a detail bottle. I applied this dark green mixture on nearly all the leaves in this area. It offset it from the first tier of trees and created a nice composition.

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