I first began thinking about this piece back in may of last year. I had my idea of what I hoped the final piece would be and even began sketching it out and applying newspaper in certain areas. Almost a year later now I pulled back out the canvas and was ready to finally complete it. I began applying paint in the areas of the foreground that I wanted to make sure were detailed and obviously in front of everything else. Next I went about applying newspaper, color pencil, dyes, marker, and acrylic paint in a more loose fashion across the whole piece. Then I wanted to create an area of emphasis on the Grandfather Mountain profile. I chose a blue/purple color palette for this area to help unify all of the mountains and help it stand out from the rest of the painting. In the past I would finish paintings with a glossy acrylic medium that you brush on. This time however I chose a clear acrylic gloss spray paint from walmart that is much faster to apply and has similar effects. In the end it bumped up the contrast between lights and darks. It also gave it a smooth completed and glossy look.
