Flowers of the Field, 12 x 16, oil on panel, L. Daniel © 2019
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Painting wildflowers in the hill country is always a treat for me. Maybe that's because before I moved to Texas 20 years ago, I was pretty convinced that this state was all just desert. I could not have been more wrong. There are so many different regions here, and the Hill Country might have the most unexpected beauty of them all. I still wonder at the color that appears each spring and fall!
For you painters out there, here is a series of process shots to show how the painting came together...
My start was a loose sketch for placement and composition.
Building on that initial sketch, I paid close attention to form and value.
(That yellow stain is a place holder for flowers that will come later.)
Working dark to light, I painted the foreground uprights first. Then I moved to the distant uprights, muting them down to make them recede into the atmosphere.
Next I added the ground plane and sky plane. Since value and color are all relative, it's important to constantly compare and adjust to make all the parts work.
Finishing the piece included muting the distant uprights even more, and popping the highlights on the foreground elements. I always save those marks for the end, so I can key them off what is happening in the rest of the painting.
Here is a shot from my easel... parked ever so cooly in the shade! ;)
