Using a colorful underpainting
Sometimes I like to play with bright colors in my underpainting and see where it leads the painting. For this piece, my original vision was to stick fairly close to the reference photo, which was a blue sky day.
I decided to lay in a warm underpainting with vivid violets and magentas. When I started in with the pastel I couldn't stop admiring the color play between the pink clouds and the rusty color of the tree, and decided to turn the blue sky day into a sunset because I didn't want to lose those pink clouds.
Sometimes experimenting with techniques can lead to happy surprises or take a painting somewhere unexpected.
