Vernal Falls
by Stefan Baumann
The inspiration for the painting of Vernal Falls came
to me last year when I traveled to Yosemite on my yearly
pilgrimage to witness the awesome beauty of the Mist Trail.
When you hike the Mist Trail, there is a place where the
winds reach 60 miles an hour and the water sprays from
underneath. Here, no camera can capture the power of the
falls; you just have to experience it for yourself.
The painting started without a photo. I laid in a burnt
sienna sketch. Notice in my original idea, there was a
bear in the foreground which I omitted in the final painting.
I let my passion loose and just painted what I remembered
of that day.
Then I started to add the details. Here you see the secrets
for getting the texture when painting trees. It all starts
with sculpting forms to make the trees interesting. At
this point, I painted out the bear and laid the foundation
for the waterfall. I used a photo initially to get the
prospective of the falls correct.
Then I placed the rocks in. Here you see that I moved
the rocks to give balance to the falls and lead the viewer
back into the composition. The fallen tree in the foreground
is painted in to lead the viewer into the painting.
At this stage, I paint my darks and establish a central
focal point. This is the most important point to remember,
you must always have a central focal point in every painting.
You see here, it is the light in the lower falls against
the tree.
In the final painting, I highlighted the foreground and
placed a rainbow over the falls to add interest. I must
state that if you are adding an element like a rainbow,
you must remember that it must not take away from your
central focal point. The rainbows really do exist on this
trail. You see them everywhere you look. That is why the
Mist Trail is often called the Rainbow Trail.
please go to his website. www.thegrandview.org
