Snags at Lake Earl

Our local art gallery has demonstrations once a month by various oil or watercolor artists from around the area. The folks at the gallery video tapethe demos and have them available for checkout by the gallery members. Since I am now a member, I checked out a demo done by Deborah Dawson http://www.deborahadawson.com/. She had taken some photographs at one of the local wild life preserves and did her painting from those photos. I love the way she did the sky and since I had been thinking of trying to paint some of the Alders in the area that were going to require masking, I thought I'd give her techniques a try. This is the result.

I went out to the same area yesterday and took some of my own pictures so that I could get my trees drawn correctly. From there, I pretty much followed along with the colors she was using and the way she was laying down her paints. I'm pleased with the outcome even if I can't really claim it as "my own". I learned a lot about not judging too quickly when something "isn't working out" as there were several times last night , I thought that, looked at her painting and realized that hers was in about the same state. Using the masking fluid was fun for this and now I'm looking forward to trying a painting with the Alders in it.