Starting work on newest painting

Now that I'm recharged from the IMC, started work on my latest painting. The story concept that I'm going with is that when we look at a landscape scene, there is always something that interests us. For each person, it's different. In this case, from the photo reference, I really liked the landscape in the distance.

So, the first step was to create the thumbnail for the image. As learned from IMC, I need to create multiple thumbnails and not just go with the first one that I like. Also, for the abstract shapes, I searched various images on the internet until I came across an image that seem to match what I wanted.

The thumbnail shows the basic shapes that were used to give the painting some dimensionality. It also borders the focal area to create additional interest to view that area. Now that the thumbnail is the way that I wanted it, other techniques to focus the eye on the focal area will be to use color. For the area around the focal point, a simple grey-scale painting will be done. At this point, I think that the bands will be red, but not sure.

Things to remember are to: 1) apply different strokes in different directions to create interest. 2) Don't rely on symbols for the water or trees. Mass them the way that they are, 3) Remember to establish a foreground, middle ground, and background. In this case, the water in front is the foreground, the trees and area of focus are the middle ground, and the water/trees in the area of focus are the background. Need to establish the values appropriately.