Plein air demo part 2

STUDIO FINISH: Once back in the studio, I worked on the finishing details like sky holes and  distant tree highlights. I also finished the berry bushes with some fine highlight work and added some more tree highlights to the main trees. I felt the painting was a bit too gray even though it was a cloudy day so I decided to warm things up a bit to make the painting have more life. I did this by adding some warm highlights in the sky creating a more golden afternoon light to the piece. This photo was taken in the studio so the photo is a bit warmer than the outside shots of the piece. Anyways, here is the finished piece, Afternoon Light 9x12.

STEP 5 FINISHED STUDY: After a few more details in the tree mass and some slight highlight work in the sky and bushes I am finished with this study. From here, I can go into the studio and refine this into a finished painting at my own pace. The total time on this study was a little less than one hour. It really goes fast; just think in terms of the large simple shapes and you are half way there! Now let's see the studio finish next.
STEP 4 REFINE COLOR: Here I am cutting in more small details but still keeping it loose. I have added a hint of some tree trunks and worked on the tree canopy adding in the lighter ares of leaves. On these cloudy days with fast light changes I find it is best to just go for the overall lights and darks. Once those were in, I used a short bit of sunlight that hit to add in the tree highlights. Notice the this stage I am adding in a bit more color as well. So now we are about 30 minutes into the painting.

STEP 3 REFINE SHAPES: So now it is time to refine main shapes. At this stage I am adding in some of the smaller objects such as the distant trees and berry bushes at the base of the large trees. Notice I also divided the field planes where the dirt is showing in the distance.