Something about the reflection of the cloud isn't sitting well with me. Any suggestions? It's a large canvas 18 x 36 so I want to get it right before moving forward. Thanks
Wow, this is off to a great start, I can't wait to see how it turns out. I think there are two things you could look into with the reflection that might help.
1. The reflected shape of the mountain, in general, should be fairly forgiving; our eye expects a certain amount of distortion so it doesn't have to necessarily be a totally perfect 1:1 upside-down copy. That said, I think you'd be well served by making the main peak reflection point more in the same direction (left in this case) as the mountain itself. If that primary peak matches more closely, I think the mountain reflection with come together in a very convincing fashion.
2. More to your question, I think the issue you may be having with the reflected clouds might be dealt with if you adjust the brightness down. Generally speaking, reflections aren't as bright or vibrant as the principal thing they are reflecting because some light power is being lost along the way. So, in other words, the sky should probably be the brightest and the reflected sky should come down to be a little bit less bright than that.
I hope that helps. Again, I'm looking forward to seeing the completed painting! Let me know if you have any questions or need clarification on anything I wrote. Good luck!
Check out BR “Mirror Image”, he used a gentle up stroke to do reflections. Perhaps tap in more blue to give better sky/cloud contrast in water.
Thank you all for the comments they were very helpful. I toned down the white instead of using the TW I used the Warm White and instead of the Cerulean blue I dusted the WW in Radiant Blue, much softer. Dracula, I've admired your work for some time so thank you for your advise. I was thinking to just highlight the mountains and leave the foreground as is other than more detail on the tree. I thought the linear perspective came out OK so why clutter it up. Any thoughts?
MHK, this is awesome start! Looking forward to see the finished version! You created such a wonderful depth through aerial perspective!
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Have you tried turning it upside down to paint?