Mountain Stream - Step 1

Chimney Top Trail
Great Smoky Mountains
Tennessee

On a recent hike, I took photos of landscapes that I would like to paint.  The photo above of one of the mountain streams is one of several photos I am using to paint the landscape sketched below.

Sketch of stream

Over the course of the next several blogs, I will be showing step-by-step instructions on paining this landscape.  The first step is to lightly sketch in what you would like to paint.  It does not have to be drawn exactly as the photo, but select elements can be inserted and/or removed to make the painting one of your choosing.  In this case, I used photo angles from several shots of this location to capture the log across the stream;  and I focused on the rocks and the water while eliminating some of the brush/trees on each side.

Sky and Trees
painted in first

In a painting of this type, the easiest way for me to paint is to start at the top and work down.  I painted the sky first with a light wash of Ultramarine Blue.  While the sky was still wet, I dropped in various shades of green for my background trees.  Although this photo was taken during the winter, evergreen trees and bushes are still green.  The shades of green vary and I used a mix of the following:

Sap Green
Hooker's Green Light
Hooker's Green Deep
Indigo
Ultramarine Blue

The deeper evergreen shades were made from the various greens mixed with the blues. 

The trees were sponged in on top of the dropped in greens to create some light definition.  After the trees were dry, trunks were added in places with VanDyke Brown and some tree trunks in the darker areas were defined by lifting the paint using clean water and a brush.

Next, we will work on the rocks and the logs across the stream.  Until then..

Happy Painting!

Karen