Graceland

I wanted to take a drive on California State Route 1 one of my favorite scenic routes. My girlfriend and I stopped by the road right before the coast to take a look at the rolling hills and the cows. I came on this ride with my Nikon D5100 camera hoping to captrue some reference photos for future paintings. This was one I knew I wanted to paint right away.

I decided on a longer canvas since I wanted to capture a relaxed feeling. I took several photos from different views and used most of them for this composition. The Hills for me where the main event and wanted to make sure they covered most of the canvas. I had a lot of trouble with the foreground, I kept adding and taking away detail since I wasn't sure just how much I wanted the foreground to stand out. In the end I settled for a lot less detail and let the two cows steal the show.