Chimney Tops Trail Painting Timelapse

After tracing out the scene for my painting I generally start with adding some rough in so that I keep certain parts of the background in focus.

Much of the background consists of dark foliage where the morning light gets diffused in the forest.  I use a dark mix of green, burnt umber and a touch of black to achieve this shaded forest area.

In this particular image, there was more light coming in along the stream along with a little bit of fog coming up from the water.  As I progressed further back into the image, I used lighter and more muted shades of the green to create the feeling of atmosphere.

As you can see here, I have pretty much blocked in the background and started working on the rocks.  I'm pretty much just working on shapes on these larger rocks across the pool of water, not really bothering with details just yet.

Working forward, I paint in the pool of water working on getting some of the reflections to look right.  I also continue to work my way forward with more of the rocks.

More work on the rocks in the foreground.  With this set of rocks, I am blocking in and working on details as I go.  Pretty much just working on light and shadows to give the rocks a feel of dimension.

More foreground rocks.  At this rate, I'm beginning to wonder if I chose the right photo to paint because there are so many rocks.

Foreground rocks are nearing completion, finally!

With most of the rocks in the foreground complete, I start working my way upstream.  This means even more rocks.

Thankfully, there are fewer details going towards the further points on the stream.

As I make my way back towards the small waterfall, I pickup again working on rock details as I go.  So many rocks.

Having nearly completed the rocks in the background working my way forward, I also put in details on the rocks across the small pool area.  Did I mention rocks, I think I may avoid any images with rocks in them for a while.

At this point, I start adding in all the water details in the stream trying to capture the small pools and little waterfalls along the way.

The water details are coming together with the foreground waterfall coming up next.

At the point in which I was standing to capture this original photo, I am actually about 1/2 way out into the stream standing on the rocks.  To my right, another stream feeds into this one from yet another waterfall.  Here, I'm trying to capture the feeling of the flowing water as it merges with the main stream flowing across the rocks.

I must say, trying to get the smoothness to the water as it flows and falls across the rocks is a bit tricky.  I took the photo with a long exposure to get that silky smooth look to the water, so I am trying to capture that with my paints.

Having completed the stream for the most part, I turn my attention to the background again.  I addend in several layers of lighter hues of green to get the effects of the leaves.  Adding yellow and some white gives me the highlights I need to make the open foliage stand out against the dark forest background.  I also added details to the trees to get the look of bark along with all the limbs.

In the far background, I again went for more cool, muted colors to mimic the diffused light of the morning.

I also worked on the bridge and railing.  The main support of the bridge is actually steel beams with rustic wood used for the posts, rails and tread.

There is one large bush on the right side of the image.  The foreground leaves also have a fairly dark area inside the bush, so again I use lighter color greens and yellows to highlight the leaves.

The final work on this piece is simply going over the entire painting looking for any details that I might have missed and finally signing the painting.