Painting design process.

While I keep painting on the "Bear In Camp", I thought that I would post how I design a painting. I have two photos of deer that I want to use in a painting. Here are the photos.

The main grouping of deer are a mother and baby. I want to add a third male deer to the painting but wasn't sure how I would accomplish this in a pleasing way.

I realize that I will have to turn the buck around, make him smaller and place him in the bush where the eye of the doe directs your gaze.

Somewhere along the way, I decide that I would like the painting to be at night with the light of a full moon reflecting off the deer. A typical winter scene. So, I did some Photoshopping of the pictures and here is what I came up with as a basic design. You can just barely see the buck where the doe is looking. It is too dark in the photo but will be more noticeable in the final painting.

I may change it along the way as I see what works and what doesn't work. .

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And here is the beginnings of a painting. Of course it looks ugly right now, just at the blocking in stage. I'm finding the darkest darks and the lightest lights. I'll continue on from here.