Grand Canyon Misty Mountains

I recently was studying how to paint the typical misty mountain painting, as done by many masterful Chinese artists of the past and present. I have to give credit to Henri Li who teaches chinese painting on line, for the inspiration of this painting. He himself, has spent a lot of time painting the southwest of the US, and I share his passion for that part of the country. Henri has created many beautiful paintings of the Grand Canyon, and the desert of Arizona. That area of the world is my favourite place to visit for photography and painting because of the beautiful colour palette that is found there.

Chinese painting is not easy to master, and I am slowly developing my skills. The stages of making a painting involve several steps. Initially, the darks are introduced with black ink, until the brush is exhausted of ink. Then successive layers of gray are laid down by adding water to the brush, each successive layer being lighter than the previous. Colour is introduced in the same manner, from heavier washes down to light washes. One aspect that is hard to master is to be able to visualize the intensity of the colour that results after the paper has dried. The water washes of colour always fade to a lighter tone. The nice thing about that is that successive washes of transparent colour can always be added after the initial washes have dried.

The goal of this painting is to create the effect of a mist in the lower area of the canyon as well as in the far distance. I think I have succeeded in doing that.

Death Valley

This is an image that I took while entering Death Valley from the west entrance, driving back from Lone Pine California. The photo was given a sepia tone colouring, which helps to  portray the feeling I had as I drove down the mountain side into the valley. The temperature was 109 degrees, and I could imagine how the old miners and fortune seekers felt when they were exposed to the searing heat of the sun at 100 feet below sea level, on the salt flats. Death Valley can be a scary place to be in, especially when you are alone, far from any gas station.

I like this image as it draws you in visually from the lower left corner, into the mid distance, where interest is maintained. The flat plateau continues to draw the eye in further, creating a bit of mystery about what's around the bend.

Silver Efex Pro 2

Today I decided to try a demo version of Silver Efex Pro2. I haven't really studied yet how to use it in detail, but a trial image editing of a black and white photo I took in the Alabama Hills, near Lone Pine, California has me very interested in this software. First the original image, that I edited in Lightroom:

Then the  image I edited in Silver Efex Pro:

I like this image very much. It's a bit hard to see the image as it looks in Photoshop or Lightroom, since it has to be uploaded as a jpeg, but its quite nice. There are many options as to how one would like the final image to look, and it can be adjusted manually as well. In Lightroom it looks fantastic. I plan to use this software more often in the future.