A Great Day for Painting

The board that I ended up using for this painting had a lot more texture on it than a lot of the boards I use.  When I made the boards for the day I had extra mixture of paint and pumice gel and I did not want to waste it.  The result is greater texture, tooth, holding power, and a finer texture which allows for greater detail. When I applied the extra paint mixture to the board I tried to mix up the marks I made on it to create more mark making interest for the pastel application.

The shadows on the rock were critical to this composition.  I had decided on this subject earlier in the day when I scouted out this location.  I came down to the beach with my camera and tried to pick the composition by taking a number of pictures.  The shape ratio of the length and width of the picture in the viewfinder closely matches the ratio of my painting.

This painting flowed from start to finish.  All of the decisions came quickly and seemed to be correct.  I did not have to do a bunch of problem solving within the painting.  The deep focus that is a big part of my painting on location was not interrupted by anything other than the occasional well wisher.  In the distance you can see my subject for my second painting.