Tropical Retreat, St. Bart's Island - Coming ashore!

Now that the sky and water are basically painted, it's time to work on the distant shore. Normally I work from the top of the painting  to the bottom in a landscape and so that is what I'll do here.

 

 The hills are painted with a blued green since cooler colors like blue recede. Warm colors come forward so I will save the warmest colors for the foreground. I've painted some rooftops on the hillsides.

There are boats in the harbor, so I include those as well. Next I will paint the landforms on the left side of the piece which you can see below.

 

While the paint is wet in the background landscape, it is a good time to paint the railings on the balcony. It's much easier to get a nice line against wet paint than if the paint had dried. You can see the painted railing below. Any touch-ups needed can be done later.

Above you can see the peninsula jutting out into the ocean and a few nearby rooftops.

 

Now back to the right side of the canvas. I've painted the causeway and some close rooftops and houses. Everything is painted using the six colors that I started out with. This helps keep the painting visually unified.

This is the piece with everything but the foreground balcony done. You can click on it to see it larger.  I painted the closest rooftops darker to draw the eye out past them to the sunlit water. If this still seems to work well when the painting is finished, I will keep it that way. 

See how the hills look quite distant now compared to the houses up close. Using stronger contrasts and warmer colors makes the closest things advance while cooler colors and less contrast make the distance seem to recede.

Thanks for stopping by. Come back when I paint the balcony!