Last week I showed you a commissioned oil painting with a changing plan, and I was waiting for customer approval to move the stream and the trail into a new position, to match the cobbled together photo below.

While I was waiting for the answer, I continued to detail the rocks on the mountain in the distance.

There is no way to copy each rock, green patch and tree especially when combining multiple photos. The idea is to make it believable.

Working upside down helps me see what is really there, not what I think or hope is there. It forces me to see the shapes correctly.

As I studied it and worked on it, I began seeing ways to make the scene have more distance. This was by pulling the green patches up into the rocks in smaller and smaller pieces.Then, I moved to the backpacks, because regardless of the customers’ decision, they would remain in the same position.

More will be revealed. . .