Time has been very limited lately and I haven’t been able to work on my old shed painting often enough. Today an hour presented itself, between loads of laundry and after running to town in the rain to get hay. So I used it to add some shadows that I’ll need later.

Adding shadows is always best done before the things that surround them. But sometimes I don’t get the shadows in the right places or dark enough. I think these will work, though I know I’ll need darker areas once I start adding in the trees.

Old Shed Painting in Progress

I’ll have to order more blue pigment so that I can make more green, but I have a little bit more to keep me going for a while longer in the meantime. I have enough yellow already. For now.

Earthy Colors

If you’re new to my artwork, the colors, for the most part, are not vibrant and clear as they would be if I were using purchased paints. My pigments are earthy, and that means everything has an earthy tinge to it.

Sometimes I find myself wishing I had a true green, a clean yellow, and blues. Most of the time, this wish harasses me when I’m at the middle stage of a painting, where it isn’t very ‘pretty’ yet and the idea of an easier way to do it enters my mind.

But if I stay with it, I’ll eventually reach the point where I’m happy I stayed with the Ozark pigments. It’ll never be the brightly hued color of synthetics, so it won’t have that charm. But it’ll be uniquely Ozark, and I love that. Except for the blue and white. Those are still outsourced, and unless I can find a way to paint without them, they always will be.

The Full Progression Page

Here’s where you can find all the photos from start to finish (it’s not finished yet, but the photos are updated as I go along):