One aspect of my landscape paintings that I’d like to improve is the sense of space and depth.  I suspect that I’m too easily led astray by my crystal-clear reference photographs, such as this one, below:

So of course, this means that I have to do studies!  Here is that same scene, but broken down in 3-D lineart…

… then simplified to 4-5 grey values…

… and finally, a detailed value study!

I can’t say I’m %100 satisfied with the mountain in the background, but those foreground trees and that road really pop!  Full disclosure: I actually broke my own rule and used all kinds of crazy Photoshop brushes to create the pine trees.  The more of these landscape studies I do, the more I move away from traditional media and embrace the digital.