Problem Solving at Alcova Lake

We drove out to Alcova Lake this week for our regular Tuesday painting day. It was just one friend and me. After driving around checking out different places we stopped here.  We chose this scene minus the foreground trees.

We found a great little perch atop some red cliffs.

My drawing of the scene. I like to indicate the shaded areas in a scene like this because I get lost in the rocks and the light changes so quickly. I didn't want to chase the light across the scene.

My initial block in.

You can see the paint mixtures I used.

My finished piece, with a little glare from the sun, a 9x12 oil on canvas. 

Since all painting is really a series of problem solving, my problem here was going to be keeping the shadow pattern despite the light shifting quickly. We got here around 7:30 a.m., a little later than I like to start.

I did some notan paintings as I had promised myself I would. (Oh the agony and glory of discipline!) And it did help. I chose this view because of the notan paintings. This one had the most impact because of the large shadowed areas. And I remembered to keep it in mind as I did my block in, even though the light was changing so quickly.

 I pretty much ignored the shifting light and just used it to inform my color choices, while sticking to my original plan. All in all I was pretty happy with the results.