The finished painting has a warm, autumn feel because of the colors I’ve chosen. It is not a replication of a photo, but a new image creation.

When my design is complete, I work out a light pencil drawing on 300 lb Arches watercolor paper using a hard 4H pencil.

I begin with the lightest washes of color in the sky and foreground, preserving the lightest lights as necessary.

As I paint the dark shapes behind the building you can see how they reveal the lighter shapes of the buildings in front of them. This is called “negative painting.”

When darker washes are laid in, the shapes begin to form. Notice that we identify edges of objects due to contrast of light and dark values.

I start all my paintings with a small 3 x 5 value study. This helps me refine the composition as well as work out the value patterns which are so important. I feel free to move the tree and fence [...]

A black and white photo of the scene I intend to paint. Using your computer you can knock the color out of a photo to study the value relationships. I rarely refer much to the color in a [...]

The summer of 2005 I visited the Joseph Smith Family Farm in Palmyra New York. While there I did many sketchbook drawings, and also took some digital photos with my pocket camera. I used these [...]

My painting begins with a visit to the Smith farm. I spend several hours walking around the farm, doing pencil studies in my sketch book.