Sand Castle Smashers

So, at this point I am ready to move on to my third painting. I am working from a photo of my kids on the beach in the Caribbean:

Adorable, right? Great colors and all those sand castles!

So, as before, the lay-in:

but this is all wrong...I learn that I am not "copying" a picture when I paint. It's a reference. So, you can see my initial lay in was exactly (or my take on that) like the photo. Wrong.

Wiped it and redid the lay-in:

Okay. So much better (thank you Joyce). Now it's interesting. I spent a good deal of time with the lights and darks on this painting and it made a world of difference.

I like "carving" out the figures, so I started to work on the horizon a bit.

 Added color to the boy. Pretty happy with it. Just starting to fool around with sand color. It's quite pink.

Like I said...it's quite pink! not sand color as you see here. Color on the girl looking good (to me)

Castles...looking way too phallic here :) First go at them..

I'm taking some artistic license with the castles.



Here's the finished painting:

I added a lot more pinks and violets and grays into the castles and sand...maybe a bit too much violet.
I like the shadows and the sky. The water truly is that color, so I'm happy for the most part. This was a painting that I was proud of. It took a long time and made me smile...which is why I paint (for the smile, not the long time part).