Back at the Ranch SOLD

Our stay in Alabama is almost over for now. We leave for San Antonio soon but will be back in September. This painting is of a view from my friend's ranch out by Helotes. Anyway--thought you might like to see how I set up for a painting. First I take lots of photos and mask off using painters tape. This is how I determine my basic shape for the painting and zone in on the focal point. Then I do a value drawing and often shuffle things around and simplify to get my final design. I find by doing the sketch I often will notice shapes and colors that I didn't notice before. I then can exagerate or eliminate to make a stronger design. For instance in this painting I made the background mountain have a more graceful shape and added some variation in the sky color.