Phase: 3

Date: August 23, 2006

Description:
At this point in time, I’ve started to lightly paint in the houses. I went on to lightly paint all of the houses, and then it turn to do the greenery and the rocks. At some point I got so absorbed in this that I forgot to take additional photos – so this is the last of the in-progress shots. The very last items were the water and then some final touch-ups to the whale.

I’d intended for the final background to be much lighter in order that the heavily contrasted humpback whale would show up strikingly against that background. At the stage shown in this photo the strength of the background was evolving at the intended level. But this is an instance where the painting assumed control (I became a bystander) and the background became darker and richer than I’d intended. In retrospect, I probably should have left the whale to last. All of the colours and tones influence each other, and by placing the darkest, starkest object on the paper near the beginning, it caused the rest of the colours and tones to be emboldened as well.