Kauai Painting-Final Final

© Ellen Blonder

Well, never say a painting's final until you've slept on it. I woke up still dissatisfied with the way the top half wasn't melding with the bottom half of the painting. The sky is now much darker at the top, and I've worked on the clouds. Took all day to paint it in between the palm leaves, but it was worth it--now it really feels finished.

Kauai Painting-Day 18

© Ellen Blonder

This detailed shot shows where I'm finally getting to the anthuriums in the foreground; I will continue to work on them for another day. Once that's done, I can finally start refining and adding details elsewhere. The lower right corner was the most unfinished part of the painting.

Kauai Painting-Day 15

© Ellen Blonder

One of my friends was having trouble visualizing how big this painting was, so here's a photo of me working on it. The top photo shows details of the last few days' progress. Now that I'm having to get layers of green not to turn into a confused muddle, I'm doing a lot of repainting, lightening or darkening.

Kauai Painting-Day 12

© Ellen Blonder

The foreground is roughed in, along with the "bones" of the ferns. I added a banana plant and a couple of distant palms and a plant along the far edge of the path.

Kauai Painting-Day 11

© Ellen Blonder
I couldn't sleep last night, thinking about how tight this painting was becoming. At 4 AM, I started chalking in overlapping foliage to the right and in the foreground.

Kauai Painting-Day 10

© Ellen Blonder

Now it's getting fun, adding details: shredded traveler tree leaves, small palm on left, vine crawling up the big palm, rough mountain details. There's still a lot to fill in.

Kauai Painting-Day 9

© Ellen Blonder

The traveler tree in the left background was interfering with the palm leaves, so I repainted them roughly, lower on the branches. I finished the trunk of the palm, and I'm starting to chalk in details for some of the other foliage. There's still a long way to go, but I feel like this is finally starting to take shape.

Kauai Painting-Day 8

© Ellen Blonder

Took a little time off to show a friend the island for the first time. It helped me see the beautiful flora here with a fresher eye.

Kauai Painting-Days 6 and 7

© Ellen Blonder

I've painted a traveler tree in the background and roughed in the bromeliad in the foreground, larger than before. Lots of issues to work out with the various greens.

Kauai Painting-Day 5

©Ellen Blonder

I'm roughing in the shape of the different areas of the painting. It looks way more open than I intend, but I'm trying to break my habit of painting in foreground stuff before working out backgrounds, and then having to paint in between details.

Kauai Painting-Day 4

© Ellen Blonder

Now that the palm leaves have a bit of light and shadow, I can calm down and move on to laying out other parts of the painting. I put a quick wash over the lower half of the painting just to get rid of the stark white, which was throwing me off. It still looks like the tree is poking out of clouds. I'm looking forward to anchoring it.