So, the first image is of the wall right after the arches were transferred and masked off. I then applied primer inside the arches. After that dried, it made perfect sense to construct the enlargement grid, which was about the time I realized how nervous I was about this project. After determining that it would work best to paint from the background forward, I promptly painted over most of the enlargement grid with sky, water, and grass.
Once the enlargement grid was retraced it was time for the real fun to begin! What followed was hours of mixing colors, applying the color, FREAKING OUT, and remixing the color to try again. Finally, the background was forming, and I was picking up momentum. Now that the project was about a third of the way finished, I felt like I had a plan that was working. Then I hit the first snag…
The scene has a white farmhouse sitting on a hill in the background. The first time the house was blocked onto the hill it seemed too big. It was a Saturday, and I had other stuff to take care of at home, so I asked Larry and Nancy (the clients) to look it over through the rest of the weekend and let me know how they felt next time I came out. We agreed that the house was too big so, I had to concoct a way to shave it down.
This image shows the house in progress after it was reduced. The weird color blotches show how I used the tree color behind the house to push the edges inward, making the house smaller.
Next week I will share about the highly intimidating process of painting the water in the lake.