Cougar Peak #304

4.75" x 6.75" Acrylic on Illustration Board

So today marks the end of October, and what a beautiful ending to the month it is. For this painting I grabbed a chunk of some of the new board I have been trying out and attempted to capture some of those dazzling fall colors that the mountain is showing off. I am excited to see what the month of November will have in store....we will see.

Once again, here is the set of thumbnails reviewing the whole month of October as a set.

Cougar Peak #303

4.75" x 6.75" Pastel on Paper

I tried to capture a bit the those overcast clouds and their wild random energy. For this image I started out doing a quick sketch, blocking in all of my main shapes, After I had my sketch, I came back in over the top with my pastels, trying to keep them wild and work quickly, to pin down a bit of that beautiful chaos on paper.

Cougar Peak #302

4.75" x 6.75" Pastel on Paper

For this painting I again wanted to play off a bit more of those wonderful fall ochres, so I purposefully intensified it on the side of the mountain that is catching the light and left the cold blues to occupy the canyon. One of the nice things about pastel is that it can give you these nice intense colors that is sometimes hard to achieve with other paints.

Cougar Peak #301

4.75" x 6.75" Gouache on Illustration Board

Again the mountain continues to change, as fall tightens it stranglehold upon the mountain and the once green trees give to hues in yellow and gold. For this painting I played off a bit of warmer reds and yellows as the sun hit the mountain, lighting up those autumn leaves

Cougar Peak #300

4.75" x 6.75" Pastel on Paper

WOW.....300. There were times when I first started out that I wondered if I would ever see this number, but here it is, and another big landmark on the project for me. For this image I decided to play with a bit of pastel adding in a bit of those fall colors and mixing them in with some bright cold blues that the rain and the snow end up bringing to the mountain.

Cougar Peak #299

4.75" x 6.75" Gouache on Illustration Board

One of the fun things about gouache is having the ability to go back over areas of the painting and blend back a certain area just by re-wetting the paint again. Sometimes I end up with a spot that is a little harsh and a blending that area with a wet brush can help at times to knock it back and even lighten up the value a bit. I remember loathing gouache when I first started using it....but now I love it.

Cougar Peak #298

4.75" x 6.75" Gouache on Paper

Again another painting in gouache as I am enjoying getting back to a bit more detail. I have found myself undulating throughout the series as I tighten up, loosen up, go on stints of oil, acrylic, pastel, etc.......all to keep the project interesting, and to allow me to explore the mountain through a variety of techniques and mediums. Each day brings something a little bit different.

Cougar Peak #297

4.75" x 6.75" Gouache on Illustration Board

I decided to switch back to a bit of gouache, going in a little bit tighter than I have been and rendering out more of the individual trees on the mountain. There is a lot of Western Larch mixed in throughout the mountain and these are turning bright yellow at the moment as their needles change before losing them for the winter.

Cougar Peak #296

4.75" x 6.75" Digital

For this painting I decided to again switch over to a bit of painting in Photoshop. I wanted again to try and capture that feeling of fall, so for this painting I purposefully left the painting covered in a very sepia like mixture of oranges and browns.

Cougar Peak #295

4.75" x 6.75" Oil on Illustration Board

This painting ended up having a different look as some of my other paintings, almost a bit more impressionistic. I had been studying some of the works by the early impressionists a few days before, so perhaps some of that rubbed off in my work. The clouds especially ended up having that feeling, and the even reminding me a bit of some of the work by the fantastic Taos artist Ernest Blumenschein.

Cougar Peak #294

4.75" x 6.75" Oil on Illustration Board

Another cold blustery day as the snow moved down even lower upon the mountain. Some days the clouds move in and cover the top of the peak in a constantly changing blanket of mist, while underneath a snow, rain, hail and all kinds of cold things are being dumped upon her face.

Cougar Peak #293

4.75" x 6.75" Oil on Illustration Board

The mountain was rather lovely this evening as I started to paint. There was a blast of sun breaking through the overcast sky that lit it up the mountain as if hope was kindled, where all recollection of it had been lost to ruin. I started this painting out laying in the sunlit patches and then came in and laid in the darker values, sky etc.....which is pretty much backward from the way I usually do things, but for this I wanted to make sure and capture that light hitting the mountain before it failed.

Cougar Peak #292

4.75" x 6.75" Gouache on Illustration Board

The mountain was foggy and gray today as rain and a bit of snow attacked the peak once again. For this painting I kept my palette pretty limited, first starting on the canyon and darkening my values as I came forward then. To finish it off I added in the tree, barn and finally the clouds up above.

Cougar Peak #291

4.75" x 6.75" Gouache on Illustration Board

The mountain had a wonderful look this morning being all encapsulated in clouds and fog. With my gouache I wanted to capture in as few strokes as possible, that look and feel of the mountain, as it is being hemmed in on the top and bottom, allowing just a bit in the middle to show through.

Cougar Peak #290

4.75" x 6.75" Digital

Decided to push around a few pixels today in Photoshop. I was wanting to capture a bit of those fall colors, and really accentuate them. So I decide to keep my palette limited to the ochres, grays, warmer greens and browns.

Cougar Peak #289

4.75" x 6.75" Gouache on Illustration Board

I've been enjoying getting back to a bit of gouache lately, and trying out some new illustration board that I purchased. On this image I started out rather loosely with a large brush, laying in big swaths of color, letting there be the creation of some happy accidents. After that I came in with a smaller brush slowing down a bit and concentrating on the details to pull it all together.

Cougar Peak #288

4.75" x 6.75" Oil on Paper.

There was a bit of smoke and haze in the sky today, so the mountain ended up taking on a little bit different look. While I was painting I started to think about the way Jeff Jones approached his canvas, and from what I've heard he attacked it to where the brush almost pushed through the canvas.....so I tried to really dig into the paper and push my oils around with a bit of vigor.

Cougar Peak #287

4.75" x 6.75" Oil on Paper

Another beautiful fall day today. A person almost wishes they could stop time, just so you would have time to capture on paint a bit of this loveliness that fades so quickly. I kept my oils this for this piece, trying to capture a bit of that orange glow that you get at the end of the day, as I pushed and pulled around my oils like frosting on a cake.

Cougar Peak #286

4.75" x 6.75" Gouache on Illustration Board

I was able to capture the mountain this morning on a bit of gouache. I always love the look of the mountain as the sun climbs up in the sky and bathes the canyon with that fresh morning light. One these last couple of paintings I have been using some new illustration board...and it is always fun to paint on something different, seeing how your paint will react with that surface.

Cougar Peak #285

4.75" x 6.75" Gouache on Illustration Board

Today I decided to switch back over to a bit of gouache since it had been a while since I had rendered the mountain in that oh so wonderful medium. I did this painting towards the end of the day, and I wanted to capture a bit of that red glow that the mountain and clouds take on as the sun begins to set over the horizon.

Cougar Peak #284

4.75" x 6.75" Oil on Paper

Today I started painting with my oils, and was really enjoying a laying down my strokes, that I ended up getting to a certain point where I liked what I had even though it was not finished, or what I consider finished usually. The painting has bigger chunks of white showing through from underneath which is had for me to do with oils, and it never looks very good in my opinion especially on canvas, but on the paper I liked it for some reason and decided to leave as is.

Cougar Peak #283

4.75" x 6.75" Pastel on Chipboard

Slowly but surely the mountain is coming aglow in a mix of fall colors. The Tamarack (Western Larch) trees are beginning to change their color to a vibrant yellow, as well as the Aspens, and Cottonwoods. Though their affect is hard to see from a distance and difficult to translate on paper, still the affect is noticeable.

Cougar Peak #282

4.75" x 6.75" Pastel on Paper

Today it cleared up a bit and the rain disappeared giving us once again a full view of the mountain as it begins to shed it's summer greens and prepare for winter. On this piece I purposefully left bits of the white paper, as it tended to give the image a lighter feeling that was reminiscent of today, as opposed to the heavy feeling from all of the rain lately.

Cougar Peak #281

4.75" x 6.75" Oil on Chipboard

I painted this image today after the sun had set behind the mountain and the mountain was all cloaked in shadow. As you can see nothing is really highlighted on the mountain, and it has taken on a dark and somber tone to it, plush chilly too.

Cougar Peak #280

4.75" x 6.75" Oil on Paper

Cold blues and grays once again dominated the color palette of the mountain, and you could feel those colors leech down into the depths of your bones. For this image I worked with my oils, keeping my paints thick and creamy, smearing, blending, scraping, and pushing my paint until I was able to come up with an impression of the chilly mass towering in front of me.

Cougar Peak #279

4.75" x 6.75" Oil/Pastel on Paper

The falling rain broke apart, and the sky cleared turning the clouds into a blanket of pink fluffy beauty. I started this image out with my pastels, laying down colors and working up a more refined image. Once I was done with my pastels I sealed the image and the painted over the top of it with my oils, working in among the clouds and sky a bit more and darkening up some of the foreground elements.

Cougar Peak #278

4.75" x 6.75" Oil on Paper

The valley was getting hammered today by rain, and the mountain itself was wrapped in layers of clouds and mist. Behind all of the cloud cover as it moved and undulated you could catch a glimpse of the every creeping snowfall. I decide to paint this one with my oils, keeping my paints thick and chewy as I smeared it and moved it among my panel.

Cougar Peak #277

4.75" x 6.75" Oil on Paper

Farther down the hill it goes, white if falls, and cold it flows. This morning the snow on the mountain had sunk even farther down the mountain. Down in the bottom of the valley it was raining and there was a nice mixture of clouds undulating and moving among the mountain.

Cougar Peak #276

4.75" x 6.75" Oil on Chipboard

A bit farther down the snow keeps descending on the mountainside. For this painting I had a nice piece of thick chipboard that I wanted to work on. I like the chipboard because it has a nice medium value to work off of, and the oil tends to soak up into the chipboard giving it a nice effect.

Cougar Peak #275

4.75" x 6.75" Acrylic on Paper

Again the top of the peak is obscured by clouds, but underneath it's shadowing blanket of haze is hiding a white brilliant snow. I started this image out doing a quick sketch and then painted laid in my mountain, canyon and bottom field. Finally I painted in the clouds that covered the peak, and added in all of the little details.

Cougar Peak #274

4.75" x 6.75" Digital

Now we enter the month of October, which should hopefully prove to be one of the more exciting months. October can really have a little bit of everything from sunny hot days, to rain, snow, and of course all of those beautiful fall colors. The mountain as I was painting today was overshadowed by rain clouds, except for a tiny patch that was being lit up by the sun....very cool.