A Seascape

SO this time I basically just tried to paint from a photograph on my calendar that I liked. The photo was taken of The Twelve Apostles, Port Campbell National Park, Victoria, Australia. I just thought it was really pretty, and it's a place I wouldn't mind seeing someday. So here's my version of it:

This is my painting with the original picture above it.



And by itself . . .





I've decided I really like painting water. It's kind of easy for me to paint water for some reason - I just get the colors right, swirl them around a little on the canvas, and somehow I always like the way it turns out. I'm actually pretty happy with this painting.

What I really want to paint though is mountains. I think they are a little harder to get right, so I need to practice them more. I'm going to try to do a mountainous landscape for the next one I think.

Attempting a Landscape

I decided to try to paint a landscape this time, because that is more the type of thing that I would enjoy painting. I love the outdoors and the mountains, so I want to get good at painting landscapes.

For this painting I just copied a picture of a painting in one of my painting books, Alwyn Crawshaw's Oil Painting Course by Alwyn Crawshaw. And the painting I tried to imitate was one of Alwyn Crawshaw's paintings.
Here's my finished attempt:





I feel like the colors aren't quite right for the foothills on the far edge of the lake. They need more of a greenish tint or something. I like how the sand turned out on the edge of the water, but I feel like there should be something in the foreground - I really don't know what to add though. What do you guys think? I also feel like the painting as a whole should either be more detailed or more vague than it is - it's stuck in the uncomfortable middle, and I'm not sure what to do about it.

One thing I learned with this painting is that it is fun to paint water. You basically just swirl around a bunch of colors, add a few shadowy reflections, and it just looks great! And if you mess it up you just do a few blending brushstrokes and no one would ever know. Yes, I had fun with that.

I really do like painting landscapes - I think my future paintings will be limited to that. I might add buildings or fences to my landscapes sometime, but I like paintings of the outdoors. Indoor things just don't inspire me the same way.

The colors of the leaves are so gorgeous where I live right now that I'm tinkering with the idea of trying an Autumn painting. I want it to turn out really well if I do that though, because Autumn scenes are near and dear to my heart. I'm a little scared to try painting the leaves - I want to capture the feeling of Autumn just right, and I'm not very good at this yet. I may or may not do an Autumn painting this year - we'll see. I might want to be a better artist before I try that.