First, many thanks to Michael for his kind offer to help me achieve my goals with this painting!..and to my friends here who have been so supportive.  This is the first painting I'm attempting since losing my husband to a battle with stomach cancer.  It's been a difficult time for me and this marks a beginning step in healing my grief. The source photo I'm using is from our vacation at Cape Cod only last July when life seemed so sunny & bright - and this painting is a tribute to that time as well as to the future..walking down a sunny path again.

I thought a blog post would be the best way to show the progress of my painting, without taking up so much space in the daily photos.  Thanks in advance for following and for your comments and critiques on my work.  It's good to be among friends:)

My first attempt, with the source photo, grayscale and sketch -- and what NOT to do!

and the new version, beginning with a burnt sienna imprimatura and wiping out the lights, per Michael's suggestion

I tried to be very mindful of keeping the horizon low, since one of the things I was so drawn to with this place was how tiny we are in the scheme of nature..

Also of importance was the contrast between the very light and the dark - I found that beautiful

And finally, the two figures I chosen to keep in the scene - mom (or grandma?) with the little boy wanting to rush ahead but checking back to be sure she's still back there (Or maybe saying, come on!!..I find the poetry of the first much nicer!)  I can certainly find a lot of symbolism here to my current situation..but enough said on that!!

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Comment by Michael J. Severin on July 21, 2016 at 1:19

Good morning Lori, looks good. If you are satisfied with the shapes, then proceed to the next step .... adding the color. Yes, that was a typo ... should be white. You can use any blue, I prefer ultra marine blue.

Comment by Lori Ippolito on July 20, 2016 at 17:50

Not at all! I'm p;eased that you can see why I thought this would make a good painting! It's been on my to do list for a year! When you day mix blue greens with blue + yellow + st --did you mean white? Not sure what st could be..is the blue always UB? 

Here's where I am so far

Comment by Lori Ippolito on July 20, 2016 at 16:14
Holy moly look what you've done! I hope I can follow your lead! Clearly my first step was way too controlled. I'm did use bt sienna..old holland. Straight out of the tube with a bit of OMS to thin it down. Lights are wiped out, mid lights are the road and distant trees, mid darks would be the dark green areas & darkest darks are deepest shadowed areas which you used gray/blue/violet.. Correct?
Comment by Lori Ippolito on July 20, 2016 at 5:34
I've done it but don't have access to my commuter..ill post later:) ty
Comment by Michael J. Severin on July 20, 2016 at 4:08

Oh, Sorry Lori .. I did not read your comment very carefully before I commented about the little boy ...ignore what I said about that ... keep the little boy there ... your right .. good poetry!!  ... but do make all of those tree edges .. more irregular and loose .. and soften up that hard edge of the road.

Comment by Michael J. Severin on July 20, 2016 at 3:28

Okay, looking good Lori.  Now I would like you to  scrub back in the burnt sienna over all those little spaces up there at the top .. make that just one dark shape .. do not put in all those little shapes yet.  Also scrub back in and make that vertical tree a little thicker and loosen up the edges on everything .. get rid of those hard edges right now while you have the opportunity ...get rid of the angled line by pulling out some more lights from the light shape at the upper right .... whittle down some more so you get rid of that strong diagonal ... you need to keep your shapes very amorphous and loose.  Okay, one more thing ... either take the smaller figure out, or bring it closer to the larger figure ... nearer the focal point ... the focal point is the main figure .. anything near that is part of the focal point ... so any figures that are away from the focal point must me rendered later in a not so important manner ... so your choice .. take that small figure out for later, or make it part of the focal point?  Oh, loosen up all of those hard edges .. as I mentioned, keep everything loose .. no regular shapes and no hard lines or edges ... ..anywhere.  :)

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