Photoshop, 2-3 hours (didn’t keep track)

I’ve never truly painted “en plein air” before (except for that watercolor street scene – which doesn’t count ‘cuz I changed the colors a lot). So I decided to give it a try. I wanted to improve my understanding of colors outdoors, especially in foliage. I also tried to use just a simple brush. I'd say 98% of this thing is done on variations of the same brush.

(I realize this lacks a focal point, but it was more of a study of color-- just drawing what I saw.)

Honestly, I should’ve done it before, because this beautiful area is part of the woods behind my house (not my land, city park tow path area.) Very convenient.

Anyway, I lugged my laptop, tablet, giant lawn chair, and TV table outside (quite a sight) and set up on this little bridge that passed over this creek. It probably wasn’t something the joggers, bicyclers, and dog-walkers were used to seeing out there.

I’d say the one thing I learned was how much the lighting changed, even in the slightest variation of time of day or cloudiness. There are so many different variations of lighting I was trying to capture within this image, it reminds me of time lapse photography, hehe…

[My first attempt at this same area scene was in acrylic (which I’ll put on dA once I get my scanner up and running). It wasn’t a great experience because the hot sun kept drying my paint completely every time it touched the paper. The color came out decent, but the edge quality was pretty crappy.]