Sunset over Water

[Enug]

Or could be a sunrise - I used a reference photo and the gulls were stickers. I know, I wish I hadn't been lazy now and painted them. They were a last minute addition.

[D Akey]

Pretty -- very pretty. I love sunsets, being a California dude with the water to the west. Sunrises here are very much more occluded, with the sun rising over the mountains and lots of trees in the way -- for me, certainly not for everybody. But from the drama of the steep incline, it looks like it could be Big Sur here in California.

As to wanting to remove elements from your painting, like the gulls in this case, that's one of the places working layers comes in handy.

However, it's not that complicated what they're flying over to where you couldn't paint them out. Might be worth it just to get the experience of having to match a background. Forces you to look carefully and analyze what's happening so that it's seamless when you fix it. And believe me, that's a skill that you will use over and over and over, so you might as well give it a shot. There will be times when you're using a delicate technique that doesn't promote fixing, and you just do it over, like with washy watercolor where a certain level of spontaneity is essential to the overall look. But patching is a good thing to play with. Gives you control.

Nice one, Enug.

[stevemawmv]

Hi Enug....'You gotta love sunsets', I like the way you painted the last remnants of the days light....
Gulls....I see them everyday, they almost have to be part of a painting of the coastline, stickers or
not these work well within your image.
Take care,
Steve

[D Akey]

Steve reminded me -- what I was saying above, painting the gulls out, I assumed you would then paint them back in by hand. The gulls are a nice way to populate your picture.

[Enug]

Thanks Steve - there weren't any gulls on the photo reference and I only thought of them at the last minute.

Yes, Mr.Akey - I knew you meant to painted them back in. I had merged my layers and I was too eager to catch the last post/mail - lesson learnt. I will go back and rectify.