Day 1,  I'm doing a different approach, just to be different.  Without drawing I started painting using water colors. It was very easy to position the elements, because it was very easy to wipe out the color. Tomorrow I will start with charcoal for more accuracy. It's color that caught my eye for this painting. Magenta to red, yellow and green.

Day 2, the technique was Ok, nothing special. A charcoal or pastel would have done. I'll try it again with just burnt umber. That picks up pretty easy. 

The house was painted a red I matched with naphthol crimson light. It faded in the sun to a magenta tint. It's a Christmas house!

Day 3, What's worst then painting in the rain? Painting in the wind, 35 mph today. You have to lock your hand to the support so every thing moves together. It's still a hassle. I'm blocking  with the highlight local colors, plus some of the darkest darks. By the end of day three I was exhausted. It was hard to keep going.

Day 4, Another rainy and windy day. 
I can't decide if I like the palm fron following the same path as the shadows on the lawn. The fire of color is happening about 3:30, that is the time of day for this painting. I know that much for sure.
 

Day 6. Oh my goodness, I can't remember a worst painting day, the sun was out and it was raining, the sun was in and it stopped raining. The wind never stopped. I had to paint with one hand holding down the board all the time.

Day 7, Today was the first day it was sunny all day. It was the first time I could compare the morning light to the afternoon light. Wouldn't you know it, I liked the morning light better. Here are the white outs and color changes I had to make preparing for tomorrow.

• Quinacridone PO48 and Quinacridone PO49, Acra Gold, similar to original Indian Yellow Brown Side
• Yellow Light Hansa
• Cad Yellow Medium
• Cad Orange
• Quinacridone PR206 Acra Burnt Orange
• Quinacridone (no PR #) Acra Red Orange
• Van Dyke Red Hue Benzimidazolone PBr25
• Scarlet Red Hue
• Cad Red Light and Medium
• Naphthol Crimson and Naphthol Red Light
• PR209, Acra Red 
• PV18, Acra Crimson
• PR122 Acra Violet, now called Acra Magenta
• Deep Magenta
• Deep Violet
• Prism Violet
• Dioxazine Purple


Three of the new transparent colors mixed to a neutral dark;  Acra Gold and Ult. Blue, Van Dyke Red Hue with Cobalt Blue and Acra Red Orange with Thalo Blue.

The dry cyan pigment paint Thalo Blue, will neutralize with a wash of burnt umber. Why?... 

Because burnt umber is dark red as in the manganese RHODOCHROSITE crystal, MnCO3, H3.5, SG-3.7, scalenohedral crystals in the trigonal system, opaque and transparent. MANGANESE, red standard color, #3, [YYMM], idiochromatic. 
Iron also has crystals showing from red to brown. IRON OXIDE ranges from white calcite, yellow ocher, sienna, red oxide, brown and green umber to black. Adding heat [calcimined], brings out the red
side and adds a transparent quality if silicates are involved, as in sienna. Magnesium is the purple side of caput mortuum, present in iron. 

The color yellow becomes a darker burnt umber color as it becomes darker in the titanium SPHENE crystal; CaTiSiO5, H5.5, SG-3.5, monoclinic wedged shaped crystals and masses. 
The TITANIUM element makes yellow-green or yellow pigments and colors darken to brown with neutral dark areas in a transparent crystal. Centering yellow to neutral dark, through warm brown, this is a common trait observed with titanium and iron.

More on crystals and their colors.

Day 8, I guess the big changes are made, the center inside porch doesn't glow the way I want it to yet but I have the morning shadows more or less in place. Tomorrow I'll get the palm tree shadows on the lawn and start shaping leaves.

Day 9, This is a full 8 hours work, from 8:00 to 10:00 I was adding colors, from 10:00 to 5:00 I was doing what comes naturally. Tomorrow should be the big day.

Day 10, Well today was a big day, perfect weather and all, but I didn't finish. I'm really pleased with the help my color chart gave. And I'm really pleased with Van Dyke Red Hue and Acra Crimson.

Day 11, Dec. 16th, I know I will finish tomorrow. I guess I've said that before. I've been using my brushes pretty hard for the last couple of months so today I treated them to an alcohol cleaning. They like that :)

Detail, This is my Christmas House. It's at the 1200 feet elevation in Kaupo. Weather wise it was the hardest painting I can ever remember doing. Color wise it was the most exciting.