Painting wild places...

I decided to tackle on of the 12 foot wide walls today, which will host a grand panoramic view of the High Peaks of the Adirondacks from Indian Pass, on the right (west) to Mount Marcy, the highest peak in the state, and beyond, on the left (east). So the first challenge is, how do accurately sketch the contours of the landscape - when it's 12 feet wide. My reference photos are on my laptop. I assembled a number of my photos of this specific viewpoint, from the summit of Mount Jo. They were taken on different hiking trips, during different seasons. I pieced them together, then cropped to 3x12 inches. I put guidelines across the image, dividing it horizontally, with a line across the middle. 

Then I divided it vertically at 1/4, 1/2 and 3/4 of the way across. I also made pencil marks on the wall at the same intervals. First lesson learned - it's impossible to photograph the complete 12 foot wall when you can only back up 6 feet! Also, the lighting situation makes it hard to get good photos.

It's hard to see the pencil lines, but the simple grid allowed me to look for the key distinctive shapes and make sure they appear in the proper section, at the correct height and position. The next step was to mix up a greenish-grayish-blue and to brush in the darks, or shadows. This is really important as it helps me see not only the accuracy of my drawing, but also to judge the proportions. 

After the shadows, I mixed up a basic gray-green and started blocking in the lighter shapes, again, making the shapes in the distance lighter than the foreground shapes - which also had more color than the distant ones.

Working on the shadows, I tried to make sure those in the far distance were  grayer and lighter than foreground shadow shapes. My photo does not really show the gradation of the values I painted. My description may make this process sound rather simple, but it really wasn't and took hours. There are probably 2-3 layers of paint on most parts of the painting. I used a 1" wide brush and remember my wall is 3x12'. Here's a last look at the central , and most important, part of the composition.

Accomplished a lot today! Headed home at 5:30, stopped and hiked the Cooper Kill Trail for an hour, just to get some exercise .