By Every artist practices. Pianists do scales. Painters paint. I, on the other hand, have never been fond of practicing anything because I always want to do. However, I am finding myself rather stumped at the moment, and have decided I do need to practice. I need to practice brush strokes and colors. I realized this after I lay down this wash for the mesa and lower portions of the painting, which for now are at a standstill.
Looking at everything, I am thinking about two things. What colors should I use? What brush should I use?
Colors don’t require a brush choice, so I have dabbled with reds for the mesa, as you can see below. There are combinations of Burnt Sienna, Quin Gold, Yellow Ochre, Raw Umber, Organic Vermilion, and Pyrrol Orange. Doing these early in the morning, I didn’t label them. That’s okay, because I know the colors I used, and I will check them out during daylight.
Next, I need to decide on a brush. I am inclined to go with a flat, so I can draw straight across to show the sedimentary layers of rock. Those I will get to sometime tomorrow and then choose colors and – yes! – practice making some strokes and mixing the colors strong enough to make some good contrasts, too.
Journey by Paper 