Hard pastel and alcohol underpainting

Morning at Swain’s Lock, 16 x 12, UART 400 board

Yesterday I awoke to a bright blue sky and decided that I’d go out to paint, despite the prediction of 90’s later in the day. A friend went with me and we found that standing in the shade by the Potomac River was quite pleasant. When I first arrived, the foreground was all in shadow and there was a flock of geese. I took a picture of them for reference. Later, a blue heron flew in and landed to the left of the bright grasses on the little island. Took a picture of him too, but in the end left him out. I began with a hard pastel underpainting, going primarily for value to begin with. I didn’t limit the palette or give a lot of thought to the colors I used. I was more concerned with shape and value. I worked from top to bottom and by the time I got to the bottom, there was a lot of sunlight on it and it was very different from what I’d seen early on. I struggled with the foreground and considered it to be the weak point in the picture.  This morning I looked at my photo of the geese and the dark foreground and decided to try to reproduce what I’d first seen that so attracted me. I brushed down the foreground and used dark colors to lay in three geese and grasses and added a few streaks of light. The geese were a bit of a struggle. Adding poorly drawn animals or birds to an otherwise pleasant landscape can make it look amateurish. I’m hoping that what I ended up with is acceptable. I like the dark foreground as it sets a contrast for the beautiful light on the water. I used some very light yellow greens in the water just about the foreground and in the distance. I love the way the river takes a bend at this point and the land on the left is cooler and more blue. I probably won’t get out again this week. Very hot and humid all week and I have so many other things to do!  But it was wonderful being there for a brief time.