Painting Tips 1
"The Falls"

The first step I begin with in painting one of my pictures is the thought process. I think of my main focal point ( in this case the falls) and go from there. I can see the finished painting in my mind give or take a few Parrots, or whatever it is I'm painting.

The next step I do is to sketch the design onto the canvas. This helps me determine positioning of the main focal points to the other points in the painting.

Next, I paint in the background with the base color. I used 
Brilliant Blue. This I do with my 2" brush using a vertical stroke.

Then I start mixing white to achieve depth. I start in the center and 
get darker as I go outward.

Next, I apply Sap Green around the Blue oval for my background color.
I then take Manganese Blue and paint palm leaves on the edge of the blue
and just inside of the green background, this gives that far away look (you
don't want much detail on these). As we come in closer I take Hookers Green
and put in some branches (these you want darker and more defined to bring
them in the middle ground).

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