landscape redux

timber coulee fishing: before

timber coulee fishing: after

there were some technical issues that i had with the last two landscapes. i wanted them to have a lot of depth but to varying degrees they were a bit shallow. that would have been fine if i had intentionally tried to flatten the picture frame of reference....but i hadn't. i got some good advice on the first one "timber coulee fishing" when i posted it on the brush with water forum. the first was to make sure the things one wants to recede take on a decidedly blueish cast. one way to do this would be to lightly paint over the distant hills and sky with a blue wash. the other piece of technical advice was to make the water lay down flatter by painting it a bit darker in value than the sky it is reflecting. again, i think this could be accomplished by a light wash of a transparent blue like cobalt blue. i tried both both these techniques on the "rabbit trail marsh" painting and they accomplished what i had been striving for artistically, namely a greater depth of field and the water seemed to be obeying newtonian principles. so, i decided that i would apply these two techniques to the "timber coulee fishing" painting. i figured nothing ventured nothing gained. once more, i think both accomplished what i had wanted in the first place but didn't have the requisite tools in my toolbox. now, hopefully, i do. so here are the "post" results along with the "pre" images previously posted.

rabbit trail marsh: before

rabbit trail marsh: after