I got some real good work done last night. It just flowed. I wish all my paintings could go this smoothly. :P

Just took the picture this morning, though, once I had more light. Still raining out, but it wasn’t so bad, and I was able to use the gazebo for cover for the picture. It’s not waterproof, but it does keep the majority of the rain off, at least.

Lighter cloud colors started.

Lighter color in parts of the cloud, as well as a bit of sketching for the rest of the light cloud parts (which can’t really be seen because of having to take the pictures inside with just my painting light. It’s good for painting, not so good for picture taking). Will be working more on the lighter colors (already have it on my palette and it’s only 11:30, so why not?) some tonight, but with a smaller brush now. The current light patches were put in with a filbert 6, which is about 1/2 inch wide at the tip. It’s just what I picked up, and it was working well, so I didn’t want to take the time to clean it off and change to a different brush. Just went with the flow that was happening. :)

Adding the lighter color and sketching for the rest.

I’ve gotten the base of the cloud mostly finished for now… the shape is about right, the color pleases me, and I feel good with it. Now, to start adding some of the light of the cloud.

Pictures are not easy to take indoors, so, unfortunately, the pictures won’t be that great for the next few days. We’re having a bit of rain right now and it’s windy, so no going outside with the tripod. Sad, too. It’s actually pretty warm at the moment.

More work on the base.

This is what I had trouble with in Horizon Fire… the color of the base of the cloud. I can’t even tell you how many times I painted it, and then I had to make adjustments to it once the rest was finished. But I remember it not being blue enough or dark enough, so I’m starting there this time.

The base of the cloud.

This may start to look familiar. After taking Horizon Fire into work for my friend, one of our radiologists fell in love with it. He first asked her permission, and then asked me if I would paint one for him with a little adjustment and a little bigger.

So, here I am again.

I’ve gotten the background in, and it went a little smoother this time. I’m hoping that the whole painting might go a little smoother with most of the ‘color testing’ having been done, but since I didn’t actually take notes on what I used, I’m going all by memory. We’ll see how that goes.

Background of the painting