SLOUGH CREEK BISON PHOTOGRAPH shows only one buffalo, and the large tree just off center in the middle ground made for a composition that was far from ideal, given the fact that the Absaroka Range was weighted so heavily to the right side of the picture. So I decided to add two more bison and to add another tree and place it to the left.
STEP 1. I painted the sky first with phthalo blue red shade and cobalt blue. Clouds were toweled off while the wash was still wet. Gray shadows were added in the lower part of the clouds. After the sky dried, I painted the distant peak and allowed that wet wash to disappear into the foreground ridge. Once that wash was dry, I painted the shadowed areas on the distant peak. I also painted the foreground ridge with a mixture of yellow ochre and quinacridone burnt orange, plus a little phthalo blue red shade for the greener areas.
STEP 2. Next I added the embankments in the foreground and rewet the middle ground shoreline area to add grasses and shrubs.
STEP 3. I decided to adjust the color of the peak in the distance more towards blue, so I painted a thin glaze of cobalt blue over it. Next I rewet the middle ridge and painted golds and browns wet into wet to create the contours, and simultaneously used a flat brush to wipe out the highlights at the crest of each subsidiary ridge.
STEP 4. I painted the lodgepole pines on the ridges and the two larger ones in the middle ground next. I used hansa yellow medium, phthalo blue red shade and quinacridone burnt orange. Some areas required darker values and a more saturated mixture.
STEP 5. I added the three bison at once, using yellow ochre, quinacridone burnt orange, phthalo blue red shade and carbazole violet. The darker areas were painted wet into wet.
STEP 6. I used masking fluid on the grasses behind and around the bison. I wet the creek area and added color to reflect the ridge, trees and clouds and sky, and bison. Once the masking fluid was dry, I painted darker grasses and areas of gold and brown over the lighter wash.
STEP 7. I painted all the cast shadows, using cobalt blue. I also painted darker areas along the bank in the foreground and added some wet into wet grassy shapes on the foreground riverbank.
STEP 8. I decided that the foreground bank was too gold, so I added a little more brown to it, to make it look muddier (bison had been trampling in it!) After it dried, I drybrushed some texture over it. (hoofprints!) I also felt that the reflected trees in the creek were not positioned carefully enough, so I rewet the creek area and brought the tree line back further.
