In Which The Absence of a Catchy Title Behooves Me To Leave this Post Unnamed

I haven't really been painting that much lately.  Coinciding appointments for both Inspiration and Time have been difficult to book...and I just can't get anywhere without them both.

But here's an older project; I felt the need to paint a landscape.  Kind of an exercise for me, because I don't do landscapes that much (Mr. Kinkade would not have approved of me, I fear) and I need the practice.

So, Mrs. Carmen and Mama found these old canvases while thrift shopping (I know, SCORE!!!) and were so sweet to buy them for me.

Choosing one, I proceeded to paint over it, then make my sketch.  Yeah, I guess I'm not really one of those virtuosos who can paint without a preliminary sketch.

Using a really dark brown, I started blocking in the treetrunks...

...and leaves.

Before going farther with the foreground, I painted in the white part of the sky and the distant tree silhouettes.

Here I finished smearing on all the basic colors, and the scene is starting make a little sense.  A little messy, though.

I cleaned it up a bit; deepened the darks and brightened the lights. Using a cooler recipe of red, yellow, white, and black, I defined the road.  Then I added tree shadow.

Um...smudgy photo here.  I apologize.  This pic shows the nearly completed scene.  I put some treads in the road; and interspersed light and dark sandy colors for some extra dimension.  But the trees were still too dark and undefined.

Using a homemade brown, I mixed it intermittently with varying amounts of yellow and blue to add character to the tree bark.  On the extreme left edges of the trees, I painted some bright strips to depict the late sunlight.  Then I made some sun rays using a thin wash of white and yellow.

So, I feel like my landscape obligation has been fulfilled, and I can hop back to painting animals and portraits to my heart's content... 

...whenever I can manage to get Inspiration and Time together again.