Morning Hills Over the Santa Ana RIver

The morning shadows in the low parts of the hills and their colors were what drew me to this scene.



I really liked the compostition of the river leading the viewer into the painting and the contrast between the color of the river against the colors of the hills.  The quality of my quick sketches has improved since I began doing them.

Because there was going to be so much detail in the shadows, I wanted to get all the shapes down right away so I could work within those shapes to get the values and colors right.