Kolene Spicher: Starting to Paint the Details of My Whale Painting

My latest whale painting for Nantucket Country from start to finish!

Starting to Paint the details!

Part 3

Closeup of one of the ships

I used this as my 'heading' picture because I felt that it really captured the 'feel' of what I was striving for. I love the blue in the sky as well as the rich red/blue of the ocean that is slowly developing with each stroke of color. People comment all the time that they love my water. I really take those comments to heart~so thank you!

Before I started this little ship, however, I painted the backdrop, always keeping at the back of my mind my composition piece (the pencil drawing directly below).

Reference piece - my pencil drawing

Here's the background. I call it the background because the water and the sky are the 'backdrop' of the whole painting.

I add the orangey undertones but with each layer of color, they will magically float away!

I am liking the sky. I don't want any of my viewers concentrating on the sky but rather the details of the boats. I needed to have a somewhat solid area on the horizon so that the boats 'stand out' and are easy to view.

This shot gives you an idea of the composition of the painting and how it is falling into place

The only change that I decided to make from the pencil drawing is that this ship is not as 'large' as I had originally intended. You ask why? Well, I didn't want to cover the sky. I like it. I think it looks really pretty. I don't want to take the time to paint something that is pretty and then paint it out! Additionally, it looks clean and bright!

This is where I am at now!

The whale was only very roughly painted into the piece. I will be adding a lot more details. I had to stop somewhere, however, and this seemed like as good of a place as any!

One more additional thing I am going to do is work some of these warm blue/teal colors (seen in the painting below) into my current piece.