Right Whale Bay

I've been working on a half imperial version of the sketch I made at Right Whale Bay. Like the previous painting, I felt that this would be an ideal subject for a larger full imperial sized painting. Having a handy stretched piece of paper, and not wanting to wait to stretch and dry a larger sheet, I made do with the half imperial sheet. At the final stages of the painting, I darkened the background mountain, but am still undecided whether to put on another wash and darken it even further. At times like this I wonder whether I will ever resolve the dilemma between overworking a painting and not adding sufficient contrast to make it "ping".

Freezing paint and hands

An hour or two visiting Right Whale Bay- my aim is to capture general impressions rather than complete a finished work, so with this in mind I use rotring pen for the elephant seal and penguin outlines. The snow- streaked foreground is done with one wash rather than trying to build in aerial perspective, but this is easy to do at a later date, as long as I have the basic tonal values.