06/03/2026
Over the last few days, I’ve been trying to decide on an idea for my next painting. I’m planning a second 24 x 36 inch piece, but I had quite a few ideas, so I took four of them and created digital sketches to help narrow things down.
After sharing them in my stories, gathering some votes, and doing a few more sketches of my own, I decided to go with this scene of the Shotover River near Queenstown, New Zealand.
Using the digital sketch alongside some small thumbnail value studies from my sketchbook, I painted this 6 x 4 inch colour study to refine the composition and my colour choices before starting the larger work.
You can see each stage of my process quite clearly here. Working from dark to light and from background to foreground as the painting comes together.
If your favourite was one of the other ideas, don’t worry! They’re still contenders for future paintings, big or small.
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