Thursday, October 6, 2011

Sunset on Mountain Lake



This painting was a rather bold one, at least for somebody who doesn't live anywhere near the mountains and thus has to paint them from photos. Here, we see the sun set past a lake in the mountains as the last rays of light turn the tips of the pine trees a golden copper hue.

Lessons from this painting: Renown artist Larry Seiler is currently teaching an online class on WetCanvas regarding composition. He commented on a previous painting of mine that I should work to achieve more dynamic and assymetrical compositions. So, I decided to give that a whirl in this painting. Another note: The water color is a mix of Cerulean Blue with a bit of Titanium White and Ultramarine. The result is more accurate than just Cerulean Blue. After applying the brighter water color, I went back and added some pure Cerulean Blue to tint the area a bit more.

Acrylic painting: 14" x 17"