Painting from Small to Large Paintings Part 2

After selecting your subject matter, painting field sketches and photographing the scene, the next step is to lay-in the basic line work.
Start by blocking in a background wash, green for the tree area, blue for distant mountains, yellow for the sky. Since the subject is well known in the Sierra's, I took the time to properly lay-in the correct height, width and location of all objects. To accomplish this I used several photographs and I drew a grid system directly on the photo then transferred the scale proportionately to the canvas using a small brush and French Ultramarine paint.

Next I worked back to front, painting the distant mountains in detail, then the mid ground mountains, again in detail leaving the sky for the end. In this photo I have also painted the closest shadows of the willows that grow in the meadow. This is my reference to compare all other values against.