Iconic images like the Spanish Peaks require a bit more thought than simply painting a mountain range from memory or imagination. Even when I’m painting on location – plein air – I will often shrink or enlarge, rearrange or even eliminate an object for the sake of the composition or focal point.
With the Spanish Peaks being so well known and beloved by not just the local community, but mountain lovers across the country, I am hesitant to let my imagination take control because viewers will wonder ‘who does this guy think he is, trying to outsmart Mother Nature?’
Besides that, I had two other reasons for painting the mountain range basically the way they are shown in the photo:
- I lived just down the road in Rye, Colorado for twelve years and grew a fondness for the Spanish Peaks
- This painting was part of our Master Oil Painting bi-monthly Paint Together where we all paint from the same photo so we can see all the different approaches artists can take using the same image.
Spike, one of our members living in Colorado, supplied the photo for us.
That’s the reason I also decided to do a small 6×8 as a completed gallery ready painting, rather than a study for a larger painting. A larger painting may follow sometime in the future, but I thought the members would appreciate seeing how I tackle creating a small painting without getting too bogged down with a bunch of distracting details.
As wonderful as the original photo was, the red dirt and rocks found throughout Colorado seemed like the perfect foreground to lead the viewer into the painting. I hoped some warm color nearer the viewer would help create a greater feeling of distance and push those mountains farther away.
So, I tweaked things a bit.
Using nearliy 60 images, I combined yucca, Indian Paintbrush Pinon Pines and rocks from around the area into a more open scene that would lead the viewer back and through the painting.
Now that you see the image I worked from, let’s see how I transformed that montage into a gallery ready painting.
Also, if you’re a Monthly Member and want to view the full length 3 hour instructional video you can sign in and watch it here: https://www.masteroilpainting.com/monthly-member-videos/
If you’re not a Monthly Member yet you can learn more about us here: https://www.masteroilpainting.com/monthly-member-landing
9 Steps to Paint the Spanish Peaks
Step 1
Using a little walnut oil, I began with thin washes of Manganese and Ultramarine Blue for the sky and Transparent Oxide Orange for the foreground. After quickly laying in the paint with a large bristle brush, I wiped off most of the paint with a paper towel.
Step 2
Then I mixed up a fairly large pile of paint for the mountain range by adding Quinacridone Red to my sky color with some more Ultramarine and Phthalo blue and just a touch of Transparent Oxide Orange to dirty up or grey down the lavender color.
I used the same color in a flat application, saving the small color or value shifts for the final touches at the end of the painting.
Our paintings will generally be stronger if we simplify the initial large shapes into flat tones of color or value – almost like adding cutouts from colored paper.
Unfortunately, I sometimes get a head of myself and add value or color shifts too early in the painting process – which I did in this painting a few times. When that happens my paintings become busy and distractive, and I often end up scraping off much of my work and starting over with simplified shapes.
Step 3
After I finished the block-in of the mountain range, I realized that this presented a great opportunity to teach the members about using grids.
So, even though I didn’t use a grid to create my mountains, I added a grid using Photoshop to demonstrate how handy a grid can be when we are wanting to keep close to the proportions and look of our subject.
In over 30 years of painting, I can count on one hand the times I have used a grid, but when I have it has saved me a lot of time and possible frustration, especially if I am not paying close attention to my drawing.
It can certainly be disheartening to finish several hours of work only to discover that we have to wipe it all off and start again.
This was a painting commissioned by two brothers who grew up in this beautiful home, and whose mother still lives there – the home holds decades of happy memories for their families. They wanted it to be a surprise birthday present for their mom.
Since there were so many specific architectural details and because the building’s features were etched forever in the minds of its owners, I wanted to make sure I stayed true to the design, without any major alterations.
So, I used a grid to give me some initial guidance. You can see the process from start to finish in this short video (less than a minute).
Step 4
I then began to fill in the other layers of color for the water, snow and middle ground bluffs.
For the snow I went straight for the thicker brush bristle texture paint since the mountains were the primary focal point of the painting. I wanted the thicker paint texture to draw the viewer’s attention.
With the water and middle ground areas I used two layers of color for each – a lighter and slightly darker value color to create a feeling of light and shadow.
Step 5
Then the foreground rocks, yucca and sagebrush were sculpted and shaped with broad strokes of thick paint using both Utrecht Series 207 size 8 and Jack Richeson Grey Matters Hog Bristle size 6 brushes.
Right off I fell into the dreaded ‘repetitive shape’ dilemma with three practically identical shadow masses that you can see circled in this photo:
Endless variations available and I make them all the same like ants poised on some imaginary starting line.
Step 6
Next, I refined those masses of color with thick strokes of lighter value paint to create a sense of reality with light and shadow.
I used a palette knife to create the thin edge on the rim of the dark rock near the middle of the painting, although I could have easily used a brush and simply cut back into the highlight with darker value paint if my paint stroke wasn’t thin enough.
Notice the play of warm and cool colors next to one another with the cool dusty green of the yucca plants interspersed through the warmer reds and yellows.
I also used a lavender shadow color in the rocks farthest from the viewer in the upper right. I should have done the same thing to the shadows in the closest rocks and made them a step or two lighter as well – looking at the painting here in my studio those shadows seem a little too dark and dominant to allow the viewer to travel easily back to the mountains.
At this stage I decided to forget about the taller pinon pines in the reference image, feeling they would create a distractive border on the sides of the painting.
Step 7
The sky color was never intended to be left as thin washes – the thicker strokes were applied with lots of textured brush stroke movement and color gradation from darker blue at the top to lighter greenish blue near the mountains.
With Rosemary & Co Series 279 Extra Long Flat sizes 4 and 6 the finishing details topped off the sagebrush with thick rich orangish yellow middle values and bright Cad Lemon and white highlights.
Using a Rosemary Series 272 Round size 6 I broke up the mountains’ snowy peaks – I tried to keep the value and color shifts very subtle because the distance and size of the mountains meant the details would be mostly obscured.
Unfortunately, in my desire to maintain the Peaks’ iconic presence, I got carried away and lost the strength and naturalism of simplicity with too many details.
So, after floundering for a while trying to save all that work and paint I spent so much time manipulating, I took my palette knife and did what I should have done half an hour earlier – I scraped the right half of the mountains off and started over.
Step 8
Besides scaping off the snow, I also simplified the base of the mountains by taking a large bristle brush and layering a light lavender color over most of the previous work.
At about the time I thought I had finally achieved the feeling in the mountains I had hoped for, Kristie paid me a visit and told me “where the lavender and the snow meet they form a line that cuts the painting in half – you’re going to have to make the mountains bigger”.
What!!?
Fortunately, I pondered it for a while and had a happy thought come to me – “I don’t need to completely rework the mountains, I can simply add more snow and lower that offending line”.
After reworking the bluffs with extra blue color to emphasize the distance, and layering some green tinted color over some of the foreground rocks to tone down their warmth, I put on my parka and plunged back into the snow again.
Step 9
You can see that I didn’t pull the snow all the way down in a uniform line across the bottom of the mountains – I varied the height of the snow quite a bit to break up any line that might distract the viewer or put undue attention on the middle-of-the-painting placement of the mountain range.
I also got rid of most of the shadow shape on the left of the foreground area and increased the size of the lake. I did pay close attention to the shape of the lake to make sure I didn’t entirely mimic the shape of the mountain.
Thick horizontal brush strokes created the semblance of wind rippling across the surface of the lake.
The little touches of red in the distant shoreline were to help tie the fore and middle ground together and create a bridge for the viewer to cross the lake to the mountains beyond.
I probably got a bit carried away with some of the detail in the foreground rocks and plants, but it sure was fun creating them. The splashes of red from the Indian Paintbrush flowers are pure joy for me, especially placed next to a complimentary green color.
I’ll enjoy looking at the rocks in the foreground for a while and then probably simplify them a little more so the attention is directed strongly to the mountains. Maybe just a slight lightening of the dark front shadows.
Thanks Bill for sharing your process in creating this wonderful painting of Colorado’s Spanish Peaks! As I grew up in southeastern Colorado, these Peaks always were part of my horizon to the west. Your thoughts and actions of completing this fabulous piece of art provides me with a foundation to enhance my own. Thank you and Happy Painting!!
Thanks Spike – those peaks definitely get my painting fingers raring to go! I would love sometime in the near future to go out on location and paint the Peaks with you!
Bill this instruction is so helpful for me! I am particularly learning from what you share when you cahange something with why you changed it Thank you so much!
I’m so glad to hear that my struggles are helpful Nancy! Sometimes it gets pretty complicated to articulate why I do some things, but I believe it’s good for me too because it forces me to dig deep and try to simplify what might otherwise be complicated which in turn helps me simplify my thinking and focus better while I paint. Then again, sometimes trying to think about what to say while I paint breaks the flow of creativity and doesn’t work out too well. That’s the challenge of painting and what makes it so wonderful!
Gracias por tu explicacion me sirvió mucho
You’re welcome Monica!
Thanks for the step by step of the work behind the peak painting. To answer the question, I think keeping things simple and remembering what the subject is you are painting so you don’t get sidetracked and clutter the iimage to the degree it makes one tired just looking at it.
I agree Denise! The foreground bothers me more the longer I look at it. It gives me a great reason to play with some glazing and see if it is worth keeping any of it or if I should scrape it down and simplify completely. I love from the lake up, so I will just experiment a bit. The nice thing about the rocky area is that the rocks and bushes turned out well (if they were in a different painting), and part of the reason I put so much stuff in there, is because it gives our members who watch the video some good info about creating rocks and sagebrush.
His classes are always inspiring.Thanks
Thank you Aurora, that makes my day! By the way, love your name – that’s why one of our daughters is named Aurora – she’s a twin to Eve – we thought the combination of the “Life” and the “Light” was fun.
Thanks for explaining why, instead of just doing it. It certainly helps me to retain the information to use in my own work.
I’m so glad to hear that the tutorials are helping Connie! Explaining ‘why’ is not easy – so much feels intuitive that when I began creating these courses I had to really ponder as I painted to understand why I was making specific decisions and what the underlying principle was – and then figuring out how to explain it in a simple or understandable way was really challenging. That has been good for me as well.
Great tutorial, Bill! I really enjoy these short, simplified videos. Now, I’m looking forward to watching the longer version and painting this scene again!
Great to hear Linda, thank you! I am also looking forward to painting a larger version and tackling simplifying the foreground in a way that is engaging while letting the mountains be the star of the show.
What a comfort to read that you still scrape off paint. Or is this a relief? I suppose it’s true everyone still is learning. I love the step by step information. Thanks Bill.
Oh yeah Pamela, I think scraping off bad painting decisions is part of the process of growth. When we have it all figured out it means we are following a formula and that just wouldn’t be any fun for me at all!
I really enjoyed reading your thought process in creating this painting. Love the statement “ants lined up in an imaginary straight line “ building a bridge for the viewer to cross the lake.
Bill thanks for the blog.
Hah, I’m so glad that resonated with someone Venkatarao – it made me smile when I wrote it! I wish those descriptive lines just flowed off my tongue everyday, but I will certainly take them when they come.
As a novice painter I find your openness about the trials and setbacks of the process very useful. Thanks for letting us see the bumps and warts – it’s a great learning experience.
That is great to hear Suzan! Kristie (my wife) says I’m very transparent. I figure it’s the best way to learn and teach – and that’s my favorite part of life – constant progress forward and hopefully leaving the world better for having been here.
Yesterday Judith T left a comment that we replied to on Facebook before we saw it here. The comment got inadvertently deleted so I am replacing it from the email that recently came through with it – we want everyone to know that we never delete comments, positive or negative (except spam):
Comment:
I have left several inquiries about drying time.with no response… so this time i am screaming it…. Please add comments on drying time between steps. I am going crazy trying to understand and make my painting work. thanks…. feeling helpless here.
Here is the answer I left on Facebook yesterday for anyone else who might have this question:
Hi Judith, great question. I have always been an alla prima painter which just means I paint wet into wet. Many artists like to let one layer of paint dry before they work on a new layer so that the under layer doesn’t mix with and muddle the next layer. If you are struggling with colors mixing together too much, you might want to wait a few days between layers to let the paint dry a bit. For me, I have painted alla prima for so long I can lay a new layer of paint on an older one even when wet without disrupting or mixing the two layers together, unless I want the two layers to mix. It takes some practice, but really it comes down to personal preference. There are pros and cons to both ways of working. As a monthly member next week we will be putting part 1 of Misty Mountain on the site and I discuss both ways of working because the painting has lots of thick paint for the first couple days, but then a month goes by before I get to finish the painting and everything is dry. That video should be very helpful for you. On my larger paintings that take several days or longer to finish I often have to work on dry layers, but I prefer to work with the paint wet because of the edges I can make.
Hi Judith, yesterday on Facebook was the first I saw of your question – when I first created the Master Course I never envisioned that it would prove to be so popular and that our community would grow so quickly and so large. We have just myself, Kristie my wife, and David our son working to keep up with all the demands and sometimes emails or comments slip past us – we feel very sorry when we miss something because our whole focus is on serving and helping artists in whatever way we can. Please be patient with us – none of us are professional internet gurus – we are figuring it out as we go. Fortunately we have an amazing and uplifting community who are incredibly supportive. Thank you everyone for your kindness and encouragement.
Awesome pics,will love to learn how to paint!
Awesome painting picture. Thanks for Sharing the tip with us for painting.