Half dome revised

So I have taken my painting of Half Dome and have tried to "fix" some of the problems that I saw, mainly that Half Dome was not the main focus of the painting.
I started with a simple fix: cropping the distracting foreground out (not actually cutting the paper here, just electronically editing).

But then I took it a little further. To actually fix the foreground instead of just cropping it out, I darkened the foreground, and created some layers to draw your eye toward the cliffs. Since the color of the sky and Half Dome were so similar, I also decided to take the sky a little darker...ok, a lot darker, downright stormy. And what would you expect with a storm at Half Dome? Lightning, of course. Using a very fine brush to apply lumpy masking fluid is a challenge but I was able to get some fine lines to create the lightning.

At this point, I have not done anything to the cliffs (although the exposure of the photo made them look more yellow).

 Ok, it seemed like the lightning is a little too much, drawing focus away again, so let's take a little bit of it out but continue to darken the clouds a bit. Hmm, maybe too much?

At this point, I have over-worked my paper and will call it finished. Sometimes I just have to push my comfort zone and keep working a piece, but sometimes I have to know when a painting is finished. Either way, I have learned a few things in the process, so I think I will have to revisit this subject and paint Half Dome again soon.

Bridalveil Falls and Leaning Tower, watercolor

Yosemite has always been one of my favorite places, although I have never used it for inspiration in my paintings. Luckily Sacramento is just close enough to make it a spur of the moment day trip ( a very long day!) I had actually packed all of my gear for plein air painting, but once I got to the valley floor, afternoon thundershowers were threatening, so I decided to just take some pictures and not risk getting soaked. So here is the first of several Yosemite inspired paintings.
Bridalveil Falls was flowing very strong, as to be expected in the spring. You could only get so close before getting wet from the spray. The lone outcropping next to it is called Leaning Tower. (Even having been to Yosemite many times, I did not know this.)

I used masking fluid on the falls and the spray to keep it white but then went back in and added some shadows and a few trees in front of the spray after it had been removed. The falls are so majestic in person, I hope I have done them justice.

Black Hole of Calcutta Falls, watercolor

This is a piece I have been meaning to do for a while but it it has just sat in the shelves of my brain waiting to be dusted off. I originally posted my plein air pencil drawing of the Black Hole of Calcutta Falls  about 3 years ago. When I finally decided to recreate it in watercolor, I decided not to just work directly from the pencil drawing, although I did do the preliminary sketches from it, so there are some similar shapes. But to accurately capture the colors and feel of the falls, I needed to make a day trip up to these falls, just off the confluence of the north and middle forks of the American River. Since my last visit 3 years ago, they have built a foot bridge over the creek, but the charm of the falls was the same, other than a lot of other people on the day I went. It even had close to the same average flow of water as it did the last time. I took some reference photos of the falls as well as some other pics for future projects before heading home.

This painting is the first time I used my masking fluid, which seemed necessary to depict the water splashing over the black rocks. I was worried it would never come off since it seemed to become part of the paper as I painted over it, but after the paint dried, it rubbed right off using a clean finger. Then I went back in to lessen the stark white that had been left with some light washes.