Dappled Rocks

sold

This is my last (and personal favorite) from my Hood River trip (of the half I've deemed worthy of posting). For this one I used a little trick. I've had this app on my phone for years that lets me look at just the values of a scene. It's meant for plein air, but have I used it for that? No. Until this day, when I pulled it out to make sure there was enough contrast in the scene to make it interesting. I actually took 2 pictures, one of this and one of another possibility, before I started. Then I flipped back and forth between the two, and picked my favorite. The app is called "Value Viewer." I also noticed, in the black and white version, that the rocks in back that are in total shadow, were critical to the whole scene working.  As the light changed, these rocks changed, but I made sure to keep them in shadow in the painting.