Castle Rock painting in progress

Castle Rock painting composition thumbnail ruff

I was recently commiss-
ioned to produce a
painting for the city of
Castle Rock, Colorado
for their 2013 Art
Festival. It will be
printed for both giclee
posters and on t-shirts
sold at their fair booth.
The only condition
placed on the artwork
is that it must contain
 the image of their
Castle Rock landmark.

After spending some
time roaming around
town shooting photos
for reference I ended
up selecting three
images from three different locations to combine together on my painting. The rock on
the bluff, an old log cabin and a stand of aspen trees.

After doing several black and white line sketches and some rough colors
with Magic Markers, I have settled on the composition seen above.  Then,
still in a small format, I painted with pastels on Uart the final color sketch,
also seen below.  Now I'm ready to present this to the committee for
their approval.  In a later blog I will show you some progress shots as I
paint the final product along with some conversation about the problems
that must invariable be addressed in every painting.  

Castle Rock painting color thumbnail ruff