It’s about 25 degrees outside and the ground is sparkling with fresh snow here in KC. I’m not interested in adding vodka to my water to paint outside, so I’m working on a new study today.
Vlad Yeliseyev has caught my attention recently so I decided today I would create a copy of his work. Disclaimer: I paint these simply for practice.
This scene of boats is such a beautiful painting he did. The rust on the surface is so lovely. So off to paint a dry docked boat, or two. I fiddle with these copies to learn as much as I can. Note the yellow circles where there are areas I went back in to change. My first thought was to simplify his painting, leaving out the far boat edge on the left side. I laughed to myself as I went back to add it, wondering why I thought I needed to change anything he did! So, this is my first attempt. As it’s posted I see a load of obvious errors in just the drawing. I will use the excuse I was excited to paint, and sketched fast. Huge mistake. I could paint this scene 100 times and continue to learn from it. 
James Gurney has a great blog post on this topic! July, 2014!
28pwilson 