Almost done.  Nothe happy with the sky color...more practice needed.  Rocks turned out better than last time.

Continuing on with studying landscapes frame an instagram post

Returning to oils....

I got a "learn to paint with oils" book some time ago.  This is an exercise on how to paint the sky in "Skies Above the Quarry."  It's a lot different than Bob Ross as you don't mush up the colors after you are done painting, you are supposed to use a palette knife.  I didn't do that - I used a brush a la Ross.  I think I will redo the painting so blend it a little more using paint and try the palette knife so I get the distinct brush strokes.  But - it's a good start.

Skies Above the Quarry

Continuing on for Bob Ross in Oils

This is the Bob Ross Season 1 Episode Two "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RInDWhYceLU" Mt. McKinley that I started in oils some time ago. I fixed the too-pink hue, but I'm not happy with the clouds and it needs more mountains. I'm trying to slow down while I paint, so I put it away to dry for now.

Making backgrounds to practice trees

After a long hiatus of looking at the drying canvas in the house, I decided to try to practice trees.  I created two backgrounds in acrylic.

Swamp Background - used palette knife

Flower Background - used small brushes

What's interesting is that 4 months ago, I would have been too scared to try to draw skies or anything at all!  Now, I'm letting this dry to try to paint the trees and picking out a few youtubes to follow.

The left tree got mushy, I have to slow down.  The right tree is, um, interesting.

This turned from a poppy field into mud, but provided a nice background for the below

Finally a decent tree - thanks to YouTube

McKinley Mountain in acrylic

 

Here's Mt. McKinley with the trees added.  I don't know if I'm happy with the shading on the lower mountains, but I've tried to correct it and it just doesn't fit, so I'll leave it for now.   Bob Ross now puts in a bunch of trees so I'll have to practice trees so I don't ruin this.  I finally got the shading thing he does now with the dry paintbrush.  For a beginner, this works a lot better in acrylic than oils - the brushes are easier to clean.  

After a week, my oil canvas is dry so I can start the clouds! 

First attempt at trees in acrylic.

McKinley in oil

Went back to oils.  First layer ... going to let things dry in between coats.

October 15th - got the clouds on.  Had to go back over in blue as there was no action.

Mount McKinley

Today I tried Bob Ross's Mount McKinley located here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RInDWhYceLU .  What I decided as the last painting turned out a little muddy, was to try to let the layers dry in between.  I also moved back to acrylic paints - although I don't like the texture as much as oils they are easier to clean.

Here's stage one:

Note that in order not to ruin every glass in the house cleaning brushes, I have been picking up the glasses in the street left over from revelers the night before.  Of course, when I started this there was not a glass to be found, but I finally got a Bulmer's: