A Good Idea, Gone Wrong

What a disappointment when you want to try out an idea and it doesn't work out so great.  Sometimes new ideas turn out to be winners, but not today.

I wanted to express the desert monsoon clouds and the shadows they cast across the land.  Out here in New Mexico, we  can see for 50 miles or so.  This makes it possible to see two or three weather events in one scene.  It's gorgeous when the clouds start to pile up high, but pretty tough to capture in a watercolor.

This is part of the view outside my studio.

I read somewhere to paint the cloud details in first, and decided to give that a shot in this piece.

Painting the sky color after the cloud details are put in gives the whole thing definition.

As I started the back ground hills, I liked what I was getting.

The middle-ground was in the wrong place for the composition, although that's where it was sitting in real life!  

Detail of the middle section and the squall going in the background.

And… where things went wrong.  I wanted the foreground to be in shadow.  It's like I took a different painting and stuck it over the top of this one.  Oh well, live and learn!

By cropping this, it might be a bit more interesting.  I'll have to get mats out tomorrow and see what can be done.  

Even though this turned out disappointing, there are parts to it that I like and learned from.  I'll start over and do another one and one of these days, there'll be one that reaches the goal I can see in my head!