Thomas Moran - Waterfall in Yosemite (Master Study)

After doing some master studies I thought it would be best to do a fully fledged study. Put a little more time into it! I really enjoyed this. I don't really know why I picked this painting in particular, maybe it was the colour palette and the fact it was a landscape. Those two things I needed to brush up on quite badly.

Thoughts
I learned a lot doing this. Things such as the dark saturated reds in the foreground rocks, along with desaturated reds and blues for the cool colours. It's all about the contrast! It was interesting working with the lighter background colours as well. They tended to be bright but desaturated. One thing I did find tricky was achieving that grainy effect that a real painting has. I tried using brushes but it tended to muddy things and make the values unclear. Turns out that a noise filter does the trick, just made it look that little bit better and finished.

Two things I will do next time I look at the old masters:

1. do basic lineart to get proportions

2. go more in depth with the study. Not just copying but actually breaking down the image.

Finished Painting

Blocking in

Continuing, adjusting proportions

Further rendering

Almost there, water needed some attention!