I've done more work on this today, and I'm very happy with how it's coming along.
Firstly I put in the sky, using White, Phthalo Blue 01 and a little Pyrrole Orange 04 to grey it out. Then I added the sand and water using White, Yellow Ochre, and a little Phthalo Blue 01. I did not blend the colours on the palette very much, just enough to combine them,and then used a painting knife to do the actual painting, allow the random blends to take place on the canvas. I then softened it out using a mop brush, and used the excess paint on the mop brush to lighten up the areas in between the "sky holes", and dried it.
Next I mixed up a green for the background, using Phthalo Blue 01, Yellow Ochre, Bismuth Yellow 07, Raw Umber and a little white. Yes, that's quite a mixture, but it was a case of experimenting to get the colour and value I wanted. Again, I did not blend the colour on the palette to a completely smooth colour, and used the painting knife to apply foliage in a rough manner. I then added the dark side of the tree trunks using Raw Umber, and the light side using White + Yellow Ochre, again using the edge of the painting knife to paint them on and roughly blend them - a fantastic way to paint gnarled and complex looking tree trunks with minimal effort. To make the process easier, I worked with the painting on its side so I was always working down rather than sideways.
I then used some thinned raw umber and a liner brush to paint in some smaller branches, this time with the painting upside down so I could trail the branches out as the brush moved downwards.
I have stopped at the horizontal tree for now as I'm going to introduce a lighter colour for the background below that. As much as I'd like to continue, the light is fading and so am I, so I'll come back to it tomorrow. Thanks to the Genesis paints, everything on the palette and the painting will still be ready to work with immediately :)
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