Mow Cop Castle oil painting progression

Hi Steemians!
I just wanted to share the progress on my Mow Cop castle oil painting based on the ruins of a castle in Cheshire in the UK.

I have a good composition to work from at this stage but I feel I want more of a 'gothic' look to it. I am trying to get more of a dynamic look too, so I thought I would increase the darks and have some eerie shadows...

Here I am making the stone work more prominent.

Now that the stone work has more darks I repeat this on the rocks below

OK so with the rocks darker I decide to lay a shadow on the grass which also helps the mound have more shape

Now it is time to add some grass detail whilst adding some more green tone. I quite often turn my paintings upside down when creating grass with a rigger brush because it is easier for me to do downward strokes than upwards ones...

Here's a close up of the grass being created using various shades of green through about 5 shades

Now I'm adding some lights to the tops of the rocks to create more detail and form

The rocks are now looking a lot more defined and the painting is getting a lot closer to how I want it...

Another sitting or two should see this piece finished. Please check back in a week or so for a further update.
I have been creating a time lapse video of all this and should be loading it up here in an hour or so.
Thanks for looking at my post, please upvote and share if you liked it?
Peace!

Edit -> A time lapse video of this is now available at