Making an Acrylic Painting

I am going to explain one of the ways I paint an acrylic landscape. I am using one photo that I took as my reference. 
​I like to tone my canvas with a complementary color to the dominant colors in the scene. In this example I use a reddish brown color because the painting is mostly blues and greens. Toning the canvas first is not mandatory, it is a personal preference. I like to do it because it serves as a warmup and gives me a chance to just paint freely. I took this photo of what I thought was a beautiful scene or could be if only the tree in it was still alive. 

I used this photo and made a few changes. I added clouds, added reflections, made a live palm tree and just generally made it into my own vision.
I started by blocking in the big basic shapes and covering the whole canvas with the first layer of color. I work out the placement of the basic shapes and am not concerned about the details.   Since it is acrylic paint it dries quickly and I can add more layers right away and keep defining the shapes. I turn everything upside down to check my shapes as I go along. As I keep refining I go from big to small, from the least detail to the most. I want to make the scene mine so I exaggerate the colors and the values a bit in this, and bring the tree back to life. This is the fun part, where I use my own ideas and personalize it. For a landscape I usually start adding the details and embellishments in the "distance". I keep moving "forward". Then I move all around and add the final layers anywhere I feel it's needed. This is just one of the many ways to approach a painting.

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