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 4-23-20
Here's my new painting that I just finished this week.  This one seemed to take me much longer than usual.  I had an idea to to do a 'nighttime in the forest' painting.  Pictures below, plus comments, show my progress toward the finished painting above. 

In Progress Painting #1: Just a few hours in (not sure about the time, as I don't really keep track of time). 
I could feel my anxiety going up, as I started thinking, "Am I going to bomb this painting?".  It's kind of like looking at the painting and seeing a slew of things wrong with it and thinking, "Oh crap, where do I begin trying to fix this?".  Oftentimes, when you fix one thing, it causes another 'problem' to crop up (like a balloon with a bulge; you squeeze in the bulge and another bulge pops out).  Hopefully/eventually everything gets fixed and balanced.  I usually draw with a 'dry' brush the composition onto the canvas, and then I start blocking in some colors and contrast to get a feel for what I want. 

In Progress Painting #2:  Here, I'm adding more contrast between dark and light areas and generally starting to hone in on colors I want (not perfectly mixed, mind you).  I was playing with the color of the water area and the colors of the flora.

In Progress Painting #3:  Here, I'm adding more detail and playing with color in the dark areas of the trees.  Instead of just painting the dark part of the trees black and leaving it that way, I wanted to add other colors as well, to give it more interest and body texture.  I'm also adding more detail to the rocks and flowers. 

In Progress Painting #4: Here, I'm just about done.  I was trying to decide if the bright area in the path (lower middle of painting) was light enough, plus whether or not I should lighten up the tree trunks in the top middle of the painting.  I decided to do so. 
The finished painting is at the top of this post. 

Russ Eng
StudioEng.com