The First Day

On a Monday morning I was excited to get started. I decided to do a painting in a day! A wonderful western scene on a prepared 24 x 30 canvas. I love to see riders on horses and so I decided to do a beautiful snow scene with some Plains Indians moving their winter camp to find some game.
I start with the horses and riders spending most of the day on getting them well drawn and painted. I usually "draw" with the brush and some thinned paint. Occasionally I'll start a painting by drawing the scene in charcoal, but usually I just start blocking shapes in with paint. After I've got the horses well done, I leave the riders pretty sketchy and lay in the mountains, clouds and stream as well as the tree line and rock formation.

At the end of the day I wasn't finished.