Process Painting; Drifting into Winter

Well as you see, this painting has acquired a title since my last post. Drifting, however, has more to say about the fall leaves than about the speed of this water. With more definition and more white areas, the water now seems to virtually be rushing, at least into the far left where is has widened out and gotten deeper.

Besides the leaves, which have begun to take on some definition, the most striking thing that indicates the coming of winter is the coolness of the light. Well the whole piece is cooler in tone than most of my work. This in part is due to most of it being in shadow as the sun moves down behind the rocks and toward the horizon/evening. Overall it is still a bit too cool and will change as I progress.

However, the biggest thing that has made this piece so cool is the addition of a different blue than those I ordinarily use, both in the sky and in the water. I have been painting with Novacolor paints which are very pigment dense. I ordered one called iridescent blue and this is my first time using it. That really does not say which blue it is. My best guess is that is is a cobalt/ultramarine mix with some iridescent medium. Can't say for sure though, but I can say it is very cool in tone. So I used this in place of cerulean and mixed it with phthalo turquoise and white and more iridescent medium (love that stuff!!) and you see the results. I also mixed with burnt umber and burnt sienna to get those very rich dark neutrals. I kinda like it so far. We'll see how it all plays out by the next time. Stay tuned!