winter line: the process of a landscape painting in my studio

I know a lot of you like to see how I create my landscapes so I documented my progress on my most recent piece, Winter Line, over the past few months:

Working off of a photograph of a landscape of a place I have lived or visited, I start off with a basic sketch. I draw it out with charcoal so it's very visible under the paint. I then seal the charcoal with matte medium to keep it from bleeding into the paint colors.

 

I then fill out the basic colors of the landscape...

...and, after a few more colors are added to the sky, I add more detail to get a better idea of the direction I'm taking. I then make any necessary changes to the overall look of the piece.

 

Since my landscapes are predominantly sky, I work on that first. I like to work from the top also because the technique I use for creating the sky uses a lot of layers of thinned down paint and it's easier to tackle it first and then work on the details of the ground/landscape later.

Creating the sky for my landscapes always takes many color and overall feeling/mood turns. One day it can be ominous and dark...

... and the next day I might lighten it up and make it cheery.

After more layers of color for the sky, I began to put the trees in (with more detail).

With the sky and trees almost complete, I wanted to make sure I put the tree shadows in the water below.

I wanted to add more roses and pinks to the landscape as a whole and worked more on the water.

Eventually, I got to a place where I was able to work on cleaning up the details...

Winter Line copyright elisa ann lindstrom

... and finally finished the piece.