This is the completed painting " Fall in Canelo", 24x30, oil painting with a few studio corrections. Most of this painting was completed outdoors. I did a few minor touchups to the buildings in the background. The less you can do in the studio the fresher your painting will look. When you paint outdoors you are painting with your emotions. When you are correcting in the studio you are painting with your intellect. It is possible to paint the life out of a painting very quickly. Less is always more.
At this stage, I am painting with a small sable brush to paint in the dark accent colors and refine the drawing. I continue to paint the sky so I can paint the tree over the sky to keep the color clean. It is very difficult to paint the sky around a tree. I am also developing my center of interest with highlights, strong accents and color.
I work in the beginning with a loose middle tone block in emphazing color and brushwork. I separate the dark shadow areas from the light areas.
I work on a white untoned canvas and do a minimal color sketch. I like the canvas to show through in small areas. Toning a canvas tends to dull down color and can lead to a lot of too dark colors. Most of the time, I begin with just a pencil sketch and go right to the block in with thick paint and skip any transparent washes.
This is my setup on location. I recently purchased a Gloucester style easel made popular by Emile Gruppe and now manufactured by http://www.takeiteasel.com/. I built a 16x20 paint box with a plexiglass palette to have a larger working surface. This easel will handle a canvas 48" on a side.
