Continuing the series of European Village scenes, I referred back to my sketchbooks from a trip to Germany, Austria, and Switzerland to come up with this painting of a typical mountain village. I wanted to capture the feel of early morning light cresting the ridge and falling across the town, a scene I encountered in my early morning walks through the European countryside.
I begin the painting with a light pencil sketch on Arches watercolor paper 140lb. My initial washes are very loose, and I can tighten the edges later.The distant hills and soft trees are painted wet in wet which naturally diffuses the eges. This gives the illusion of distance caused by aerial perspective. Notice how I allow pigment to mingle in the wet areas such as the shadow on the right of the barn.
As I move further into the painting I can delineate edges by using darker values. This is the pioint where the loose images begin to take on more form and shape.We see edges due to changes in value or color. The greatest attention is drawn to areas of highest contrast.
In order to get to our cabin on the east side of Zion National Park we must travel from one end of the park to the other, which I thoroughly enjoy. Of course I stop many times to enjoy the view, sketch, and take photos. This is one of my favorite scenes as you start up the switchbacks to the mile-long tunnel in Bridge Mountain. It is commonly known as the "Great Arch of Zion." I took careful care with the lighting on this painting to emphasize the drama.
I started this painting by doing an outline sketch with a 4H pencil on 140lb Arches paper. Then I blocked in the large value areas letting the pigment mingle and flow naturally using wet in wet techniques. I followed this up by tightening edges and using overglazes to deepen the values. Darkest darks and Smallest details are done last.
