The Marsh was an acrylic painting that took much longer than other art projects I have finished. There where many steps that had to be completed. The first step was to get a canvas, this was a problem because I didn't bring one in, so I was given someone's old painting. What I did was paint over it in white so I could use it just like a new canvas. Next I started painting the sky. That is where most paintings start because you just paint over top of it and go down. After that I painted the sand and trees in the background. I tried to use good composition by using the trees to take up a majority of the empty space. After I did the trees and grass I worked on the lighting. The sun was placed in the middle so the shadows came toward you. Atmospheric perspective is what an object looks like when its viewed at a distance. I used this technique when making the trees and bushes in the background. I did this by making them lighter and faded. I used light quite a bit in the painting too. I started by making the top left of the sky dark and the bottom right light. I also created a sun which added yellow to parts of the sky and used shadows to show off the sun. I picked an analogous color scheme, I did this because I wanted my painting to flow more and look natural because it was a painting of nature. I used a few brush strokes for my painting such as short strokes for my trees and grass, long strokes for my sky and sand and I dabbed my brush on the canvas to create the bushes. I used value in my painting by making the colors alternate in areas to make the painting more interesting to look at.
