"Clarity" The Process

I started this painting by sanding down the start of one of my previous student's oil paintings (sorry Danielle! :)). It had a really fun texture to work with. I then roughed in a sketch in raw umber, to just get the idea of placement. Then I did more drawing while knocking in the underpainting (I see so much better in planes of color vs. line, which is why my drawing is always so rough. ;)) I worked really hard on this painting in keeping all my transitions really smooth, especially on the face. I also had fun working with the light coming through the trees, and ended up using quite a big of cool reds and greens to achieve the effect.

Enjoy!