Landscape Oil Painting of Swamp

 Reference Photo of Swamp Landscape

I was out one weekend in April and took this photo because I was looking for more reference material for a painting. I like this photo because of the time of the day there is some contrast with the lights and darks in the image.  I also like it do to the altocumulus  cloud in the sky.

Step 1 Underpainting of Swamp done in acrylic paint

I used some masking tape to crop the picture so that I would have a nice clean edge although later I place a matted frame around the piece after it was completed.  By doing this it gives me a boundry for the dimensions for the inside dimensions of the matted frame.  I used brown acrylic paint to work in the underpainting.  Sometime I draw out the image like a rough sketch just to capture the subject matter to be painted.  The purpose for the underpainting is to provide a blueprint for where the tones and value are located, mainly dark values and light values. 

Step 2 Add color to underpainting  with oil paint for the sky and water.

Now at this stage I started to add the oil paint by mixing light blue and white.

Step 3 Continue to add oil paint to the picture but now to the trees and foreground

As you can see from the photo my work enviroment is quite crowded.  Most artist work from quite crowed conditions.  I normally paint from my easel, but on this occasion I wanted to paint from a table.  There are occassions in which I use a table.  I do some of my drawings from a table and I my watercolor paintings from a table. 

 Finished oil painting of the swamp

Here is the finished piece signed 5x7 in oil painting.