Laguna Niguel Revisited

Generally, the darker and more detailed my under painting, the better the finished painting becomes.

The more I work with water color the more I entertain the idea of trying to produce some stand alone plein air water color paintings. I would also like to work some different mixed media options.  I would like to try pencil, color pencil, and conte with watercolor.

To start making these paintings match, I made sure that the sky in both paintings had the same colors and value.

Although I used the same colors in both paintings, I also tried to regulate the quantity of the colors in both paintings.  There was no way to match the volume of each color in each painting, but by comparing the two paintings side by side I was able to strike some balance between the two.

It was interesting to see at the end of the process how the paintings were similar and different.  In comparing Laguna Niguel the amount of rocks, their colors, and the wet sand in the two paintings were quite different.  Each had their attributes but it was expected that there were to be significant differences when you do not reference the original work to the creation process.

I really liked the warmth of the sand in the middle ground of this painting, but I could not let it stay unless I was going to rework Coal Canyon.  I toned it down.

I also worked at using all the same greens from Coal Canyon into the background cliffs to create a more harmonious match between the paintings.

When I compared this painting with the original there were a lot more purples in the wet sand in the original.  This may be an area I rework to get the two paintings to match better.

Laguna Niguel 19.5 X 25"