I am continuing to work on the El Capitan large painting. The sky and distant hills are about 75% complete. I generally work an area until it is about 2/3 to 3/4 complete until the entire painting is covered. Many times I don’t have to go back or add to a particular area, but once I judge the work as a whole, can add detail, adjust values, adjust color, etc. to make the entire painting work. Below is the painting at the current stage, plus a closer look at the top half…
The quick snapshots above seemed to wash out a lot of the color, but hopefully you get the idea.
Don, I’m really enjoying watching you develop this painting. Thanks so much for sharing. I wonder how you keep your paint from getting too dry as you work, especially working plein air. Do you work fast or have another method to keep it workable when you add to what you’ve already done?
Sheila, I use oils which take several days to a week to dry, so I can usually go back into a wet area over a period of several days. I usually try to paint wet-into-wet, so if a particular underpainting dries, I many times will re apply the underpainting. I do use a quick-dry white, though, which dries in several days. At times, for studio paintings, I want an area to dry in order to add some sharp detail. For plein air, the painting is usually finished in a couple hours, so drying is no problem.