An exploration in Paint

I was sitting on a plane. Bored. Out. Of. My. Mind. Which happens a lot when I travel, so I normally bring a sketch pad with me. To be honest, I bring a sketch pad with me everywhere I go. See, the problem with being an artist is you cant turn it off, and usually I am most creative when it is most inconvenient to paint. I find having a sketch pad handy allows me to put the idea down while it is fresh and then come back to it later. So while I was sitting on this boring plane, trying to avoid getting my elbows and shoulders bruised by the food and beverage carts, I started thinking about where I was going, Hawaii.
Hawaii is known for its jungles and adventure. It got me thinking of the last time, I was in Hawaii. We went to Maui and traveled the road to Hana. What struck me as amazeballz was the utter surprises that kept popping out around each turn. Then....Boom waterfall, turn again, pools of water, then jungle again and it went that way for miles. It got me thinking of what is just beyond the surface of what I was seeing. Isn't that what adventure is all about? An idea started to form in my mind. The pen found its way out of my bag and onto my sketch pad.

The idea is, you never know what is just around the next stop and through the bamboo. I started the oil sketch on bamboo.

Adding in the foliage.

Playing with contrast and lighting. If the balance is wrong, your painting will look like garbage even if everything else is right. So lighting is really important.

So, if you notice, I had introduced some rice patties into the painting (like these)

but they just weren't working so I changed them to a step pyramid.

Also, I had intended to put a big angry face in the sky but I realized it didn't go with the theme so I removed it. The scene morphed the more I worked on it and little details like the blue bamboo seemed to work and so I left it. When I painted the blue bamboo, I had intended to make them look like an x-ray of the bamboo, or a negative, but after I got further into the painting it works better as car lights. After all the major pieces are in place, the next step for this painting was get all the little fine details.

With every painting I learn something. I learned to work on what I can do and not try to plan out every detail in advance. While planning can be good, if I plan too much I have a tendency to get pissed when it doesn't go to plan and it is hard to pull myself out of trying to force it into what I want it to be instead of seeing what it truly is. This one, I fought the whole time. I hate it when all I do is solve problems instead of having it flow. But, I think it is a strong piece.