Corn Creek in Early Fall

This is the biggest painting I've done on-location and took about 3 hours from start to finish. The ever-shifting light along the canyon floor was a challenge, so I had to commit to my lights and darks early on. I started by doing a transparent underpainting using a thin wash of yellow ochre and alizarin crimson, blocking in the big shapes of the rock and doing my best to preserve the big lit area near the middle. I tend to work thinly with gouache, building up layers of opacity slowly.