Painting Workshop: Day 4: Rainy Morning

This morning, it was raining. Not the best weather for painting outdoors. However, at the Boyden farms, they were kind enough to let us paint under their large gazebo. So, it was a good time to practice atmospheric effects.

I think that I'm starting to get it. Now, let's see if I can remember it. In this painting, I knew that the mountains in the background were the farthest away and under rainy clouds. So, they are barely there. Then you have the mountain of trees in front of it. I added more of the grey/blue sky color to the trees to make sure that it was in front of the rear mountain, but behind the middle set of trees. I kept this progression up.

The main area that I got stuck on was the trees to the left. I knew that the back tree could not be darker than the foreground area underneath the closest tree. I thought that they were the same. So, taking into account what Karen and Jack said, I put my thumbs over the light area of these trees. Lo and Behold! The area under the closest tree is a hair darker. So, I made sure that I followed that value.