Challenge painting!

 For my next painting I decided to paint a picture that was in my photo roll on my phone. I don't know where I got it, but there's no signature on it or name in the info. I tried to track down the owner via two different kinds of AI, but neither of them could find it. Google said it was a sunrise on the west coast (Google's AI sucks, LOL) the Chat GPT said it was near sunset, mostly likely on or near Second Beach, near La Push, Washington on the Olympic Peninsula. It also offered that the photo has been edited and possibly flipped horizontally, and gone through several iterations of copy-save-copy-save.

I'm not going to post the picture here until I know for sure whose it is.

I did my usual prep for this 24"x30" cradled board (60cm x 75cm for our friends not in the US): Gac100 on the wood to seal it from the oil paint. Apparently wood has bad stuff in it that wreaks havoc on oil paint.

Aside: I belong to some groups for painting on Facebook and I am AMAZED at the confidence with which people offer the wrong information. For instance, one person confidently told me that, "unfortunately, Golden no longer recommends using GAC100 because of concerns about delamination." 

That is patently untrue and just bullsh!t. For reasons. 

• First, Golden was talking mainly about rabbitskin glue and also painting directly on acrylic paint. There is also a technical paper out there warning people against paining on oils directly over acrylic substrates that are shiny and smooth, because the surface needs to have "tooth". My gesso layers have a lot of that. 
• Second, it's primarily a concern with flexible surfaces, such as canvas. I nearly always paint on board.
• Third, the main culprit in delamination seems to be using zinc for “weight-bearing” layers. 

So for this picture I started with one coat of GAC100 with a roller over the front and sides of the board,

>>You know, every time I use GAC100 I'm convinced that it's expensive Elmer's glue. People tell me I'm wrong, so I'll take their word for it. (Important note: If you’re priming canvas, you use GAC400). 

then tape around the side (see pic). This is followed by two coats of Blick Artist's Gesso applied with a roller. Each of these steps is about 12 hours apart. 

Finally, a third coat of gesso into which I've mixed some acrylic red iron oxide for my ground. I used this with paintings and . 

 I always tape the side leaving about 1/2 inch (roughly 1.75 cm) free for the wrap-around. 

 Next, the chalked in composition. This may not make immediate sense because it also includes transitions between color gradations. 

When I isolated the sky away and near the sun, I came up with these two colors:

What's interesting is that because it occurs up near where the clear sky is, we don't see that the color on the left is not blue, it's a warm gray.  On the right you can see what appears to be a gradation from the top to the bottom of slightly warmer gray all the way down to a muted -- what. Indian Yellow? Cadmium? 

Hmm. 

I picked my initial colors and laid them out on my freaky large palette setup. From bottom left, clockwise: 

Indian Yellow, Gamblin quick-dry white, Davey's Gray, Cobalt (the last of my old palette colors), Ultramarine, Permanent Alizarin. 

Time to GLOVE UP. 

 First I mix up my sky colors. 

 Start dabbing on some paint. Ooo, that looks green on here.  Yikes. I promise you it wasn’t that green in real life. 

 

Occasionally turning it to make sure I do the wrap. 

 Turning it when I can to get the strokes in the right direction.  I use my Artistic Evolve to do this (Direct link to Artristic Evolve Easel adapters)

 I promise you it's not really this green. I'm just too lazy to edit the photos. Distant hill and trees sketched in. 

 

Forward hills laid in.

I did decide I wanted the sky on the right to be more orangey. 

 Started working on that tide rivet.  Ooo, that shadow on the left is way, way too dark. 

 Look at my palette!

I stopped taking pictures for a while because I was mixing and painting. I also decided the sky was too green, and then too orange, so I fiddled with that for a while. 

I was also busy swearing at my Echo device, which cannot handle even the briefest of interruptions

Current status, as of late lunch time. 

 Next, I’ll soften that mid-ground rocky outcropping and warm up the foreground outcropping, and soften the transition between the yellowy sky and the blue sky. Then I’ll add some more rocks hither and yon. Most importantly, there are trees that will be added in front of the sun, and in the background. 

I've been painting for about 4.5 hours now. I'm ready to take a break. My back hurts.  

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So now a few days later, after some 8-hour Advil Duel Action and Salon Pas patches, I worked on this tome more, added more rocks, etc.  

Inlet Light, 24"x30" oil on cradled board.