Lucinda's Guardian - continued!

Next I worked to develop the overall layout of the painting, changing it from a horizontal picture to a verical layout design with 3 key elements: the tree, the girls, and the tree's shadow. Using these elements I played with color combinations and layout, starting to develop the overall painting plan!

I started to develop the image shapes with blocks of color, using browns in the tree bark, darker greens for the background trees and shadow, and green hues with yellow speckles for the grass.

Details started to come out in the tree as I created an angel that symbolized Lucinda's guardian angel, watching over her and her cousin on this sunny day in a field of yellow flowers! The girls holding flowers and overall look started to come into play, although this image turned out more hard lined than the final painting - details of the clothing starting to be involved in the overall look. As I stated more at the shadow in the picture, a sillouette came out of it, and I thought how cool it would be if that were the shadow of the guardian angel reaching out and touching Lucinda, just upside down perspective! (Bottom of angel at tree, head at bottom of the page with arm reaching out.)

Playing with the yellow flowers in the field was fun too! : )