Breaking Through: Step 6
The next step was to paint the cliffs. While I wanted some photographic reference to base the cliffs and rocks on, the overall form of the landscape was determined by my original compositional drawings. The diagonals and value ranges were important to the structure of the composition. So, working from several different sets of photos of cliffs from the east coast of the US, from Great Britain, and from some details of smaller cliffs in Little Cottonwood Canyon neat Salt Lake City, this is what I came up with:
This kind of work is by far the most difficult, in my opinion. I would always rather have some direct reference, either live or photographic. However, I find that quite often, my compositions require either architecture or landscape that is simply not available. This is why, over the coming years, in addition to constant study of the figure, I will be working hard on landscape studies, architectural studies and still life painting. The more familiar an artist becomes with various subjects, the more effectively they can be integrated into larger compositions. I am really pleased with the way these cliffs turned out, but in ten years, I better be able to do better or I am stagnating as an Artist.
