Working on the road

I've done a bit of work on the road. What I'm going for here is a muddy track filled with water - I've adjusted the borders of the road to account for perspective, I've begun to repaint the grass on the harbor side of the road and begun to fill in some grass on the lee side. When the paint dries I'll go back to the grass borders and apply some detail. See the changes below ....



I'm probably going to work some more 'mud' into the waterside border of the road, under the grass. After that comes the hard stuff.

I have gone off in a completely unexpected and unplanned direction with the study. That's the second time I've done something like that and I think I understand that it has to do with planning. The reason I can come back to the big piece and pick up where I left off (more or less), or at least make reasonable changes that make sense given the original goals of the picture, is because the original goals of the picture were stated in the underpainting. I gave myself enough of an outline so that I have defined borders within which to work. So, I don't know much about how artists are supposed to work, or how some artists do work, but I'm beginning to realize that I have to work within boundaries established when I do the underpainting. The more guidance I can give myself (given that the style of painting I seem to be gravitating toward dictates that a painting will almost always take multiple sessions to complete) the better my chances of achieving my goals. So, if I've learned anything, it's that I have to learn how to prepare - how to properly underpaint.