Here is a painting I did from a photograph my family took while on vacation out west years ago, looking down a valley in Drumheller Alberta, famous for its dinosaur bones and great views.
Before I started painting on location (actually doing the painting outdoors while at the scene) I used to practice by painting from photo. When I got some confidence with pieces like this, I finally took to the outdoors sometime in the mid 90's. A couple of other things helped me along the way, one was Zoltan Szabo's book called 'painting little landscapes', and the popular text 'Everything you need to know about watercolour' , and the other helpful thing was getting artist quality windsor newton paints instead of the student quality, which made the colours a lot brighter. I would have to thank my mother for these things, and more so because she enrolled me in a watercolour class in 1989 that kicked off my interest in the first place.
When painting from photo there are several things to consider in order to come up with a realistic looking finished product. One thing is that mountains in the distance usually loose their colour in a photo. In reality, a mountain in the distance has a light blue/purple tinge to it. Knowing this, I made sure the painting reflected that, even though the photo did not have the teal tones you see in the final work. I also took some liberty depicting the river, in order to emphasize the clear reflection. To paint the reflection I laid down a blue wash, blended it with clean water while the blue wash was still wet, and let it dry. Then I put on the rest of the stuff using mostly drybrush techniques.
Drumheller Rivers, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press (300lb), 1993 (No. 0042)
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