Gray Ridge

Fri 08 January 2021

This is my first painting in a long while. I used white and black paint only for this which made it easy to mix compatible colors but harder to distinguish different elements on the canvas.

Painting of a snowy ridge with a tree in the foreground

I also practiced a receding ridge line in this painting, as seen previously in Northern California Coast at Night. If you look at any Bob Ross painting you'll notice the hills and mountains are totally perpendicular to the viewer. They never look along a valley or along a ridge or anything like that. This makes them simple to paint but it's really limiting if you want to recreate real places. To make the ridge recede into the distance I used light values in the distance and gradually darkened it coming forward, while also increasing the size and detail of the textures as I worked towards the foreground.

The big tree was originally going to be some kind of evergreen which is why the trunk is so straight.


Previous Posts

Thu 04 July 2019

Autumn Barn with Road
In my first painting in a long time, I revisit the barn with autumn colors theme. I painted this over three days, unlike most of my paintings which I do in one day. This is a bit tricky, since the paint dried between sessions I couldn't blend new details into …

Sat 18 August 2018

Mountain Pond
Here's a pond! I tried a new way of painting trees. Click it for higher resolution. And this animation shows how the painting came together.

Thu 05 July 2018

Northern California Coast at Night
I used some new brushes in this one: a detail round, a small filbert, and a new blender. Lots of new strokes in this one. The dark patch in the sky below the moon has a fun explanation. I rested my pinkie on the canvas while highlighting the moon, and …

Mon 27 November 2017

Midtown Atlanta from Piedmont Park
This is a view of the Midtown Atlanta skyline as viewed from Lake Clara Meer in Piedmont Park. And this animation shows how the painting came together. I painted this in three sessions. First was the background (sky and lake), then the skyline, then the bushes in the foreground. This …

Sat 22 April 2017

Hattie's Hollow
This painting is a departure from Bob Ross's wet on wet style. I painted this in four sessions allowing the paint to dry between sessions. This opens up more possibilities for detail, and it'll be fun to explore this further. The subject is Hattie's Hollow in Hanging Dog, North Carolina …

Wed 15 March 2017

Autumn Barn in the Woods
And this is the underpainting layer:

Sun 29 January 2017

High Falls of the Baptism River
This is the High Falls of the Baptism River in northeast Minnesota. This painting was sold for charity, yay!

Sat 24 December 2016

Frosty Mountain Lake
This is the first time I've painted the sun. And here's an animation of how it came together:

Sat 05 November 2016
Sun 02 October 2016

Forest Trail
These close-in paintings are trickier than the huge vistas.

Sat 20 August 2016

Summer Alpine Lake
This is really big canvas! It, along with some of my paintings and art supplies, were used as props in this Udacity course about Heroku.

Sat 16 April 2016

Rocky Shore
It's an ocean!

Sat 02 April 2016

Cloudy Moonrise
I found an unusually proportioned canvas at the art supply store and made this.

Sun 28 February 2016
Sat 06 February 2016

Spanish Moss
I like the subdued colors of this one. Also the Spanish moss.

Mon 18 January 2016

Wonky Creek
I didn't get the colors right in this one. The goal was to have sunlight peeking around a bend in the creek, but I didn't gradually change the lighting so it didn't work out. Oh well, every painting is practice :)

Sat 21 November 2015

Pasture at Sunset
The details in the grass were fun to paint.

Wed 11 November 2015
Sun 01 November 2015
Sun 27 September 2015

Pond and Barn
The reflection of the red roof in the pond is nice :)

Sun 16 August 2015
Sun 09 August 2015
Sat 01 August 2015

Spiky Lump Mountains
Spiky Lump Mountains, my first painting.