Swinomish Channel

A simple line drawing just "eyeballing" the elements from a reference photo.

First watercolor wash over the whole page.

Darkening the mountains and the walls of the house.

The dark and medium washes; trying different colors of the same value in the large tree.

Darkening the values of the mountains and the house....then (gasp) I noticed that the house was too large and prominent, so I repainted the large shrub.  I darkened the value of the brown wall to black.

And then, "presto change-o" I added pastel over the watercolor primarily on the left side of the painting; leaving the watercolor washes in the sky,  most of the water, and the mountains untouched.  I may darken the house yet again to get it to 'sit back' in the tree shadow better.

There are three man made elements (the house, the pilings, and the two poles in front of the mountains) that pull the left side of the brain through the painting.  There are repeated color elements (blue house, blue mountains, blue water) that pull the right side of the brain around the painting.  I hope you enjoy painting Swinomish Channel as I did!