Divers Cove

It was a great day to paint at the beach.  Inland the temperatures were in the mid 90's.  I could see the edge of the coastal haze threatening to be burned off.

This is such a great place to set up.  The bench is usually available to lay out all of my pastels.  The bench this morning was tied up by some homeless guy who had slept here.  No need to drag my stuff all over the place.  There is parking right in front of this spot.

I have gone back to sketching to get the composition where I want it.  I really like the process of doing a quick sketch.  Taking a couple of minutes to get my painting organized never hurts and it is something that I enjoy.

This summer has been filled with orange underpaintings.  For whatever reason it is what I am feeling when I get ready to paint.

There are so many options for starting a painting with pastels.  I have been favoring a more painterly approach.  Instead of drawing or sketching the elements within the composition, I have been blocking in, refining, and defining the shapes. 

Another current focus is working to get the background to lend to the depth in distance within the painting.  My paintings tend to be too close in value from the lightest to the darkest values within the painting.  

The advantage of emphasizing the lightest parts of the background is that it makes the darks seem darker in the foreground.  This gives the painting the aerial perspective that creates the illusion of distance within the painting.

I worked primarily from back to front to insure that I made the right progression in values.

The other focus for the painting was to insure that all of the elements were included in the painting.  Making sure to get all the shapes right within the painting while getting the values right.

From this point on it is about small balanced adjustments to keep everything in tune with the mood of the scene.

How much of the underpainting is left to express the landscape is an intuitive thing.

The final element was adding the wave crashing along the rocks.  I wanted to include this because in all the times I have painted this scene I have never seen the waves line up like this before.

I felt like this was a good representation of the scene before me.

The finished painting.  Divers Cove.  24"X36" plein air soft pastel on board treated with acrylic paint and pumice gel.

The value shot is the real test for me.  If the values and the shapes read true then everything falls in place.

The detail shot reveals the texture of the board and the underpainting.