Viewing the oil painting at this point in time makes you want to fly into the painting. Just like a broad-wing hawk can effortlessly fly and then into the horizon.

Located in Cleveland South Carolina is one of many State Parks covered in a dense forest, waterfalls and bountiful wildlife. Caesars Head State Park is an artist inspiration treasure chest for creating art works in any art media. There are billions of artist depictions undiscovered and each one is just waiting for an artist to take a brush and paint them.

There's path in the park leading to vantage point where you can view the profile of Caesars Head. Views from this area over the valley are incredible. I wanted to capture this view in a painting and have viewers feel the spectacular thought of being there.

Painted in some small bushes in areas of the rock formation. Doing this gives added detail to the painting creating more interest. Once the oil paint of the bushes is dry small indications of little flowers can be brushed in. Painting extras like this makes the painting pop as if to come alive.

At this point of the painting it is becoming exciting to see the composition come together. Jasmine, South Carolina's state flower, will be introduced into the picture along the left side and then near the bottom of the canvas. Jasmine flowers will start off very small at the rock formation and then the flowers will become larger giving a feeling of more distance to the art work.

I've painted in some tree branches near the bottom of the canvas. There are color highlighting adjustments that will need to be done with the paint brush at a another time. At moments it is good to just let the art rest for a bit and then come back and revisit the art composition. It's like pulling the car over from a road trip and taking out the road map to see if we're heading in the right direction. After a refreshing little break and getting my thoughts aligned, then the painting will continue.

Well the rock mass area is reaching completion and now it's time to add in the trees, flowers and leaves. The fact that Caesar's Head State Park resides in South Carolina leads me to incorporate the yellow Jasmine state flower into this painting. I have friends who have a Jasmine growing in their yard and was able to take a number of photographs for reference. Some of the photos where taken and make good perspective views. When these are transferred to the oil painting they will give a feeling of distance to this art piece.

More of the massive rock structure is painted in. It's getting the shadows in the right place that is a challenge. The sunlight is not in the same position in the painting as it is in the photograph references. This makes constant reviews of the shadows and shades a necessity as your painting along.

A little bit of interest was added by painting in a Red Tailed Hawk. Painting in the hawk helps to push the horizon back and enhances the feeling of how large the surrounding air space really is.

Shadows and light areas are playing an important part at this point of the painting. By brushing in a lighter or darker color anywhere in the rock formation you can change the focal point quiet easily. Every so often one needs to step back for a few moments and evaluate how the colors are effecting the over all composition.

Think about where the source of light is coming from and what direction is it heading. Then on every object being painted consider how the light is going to cast it's shadow. It gets really interesting because the artist needs to give fore thought on how intense is that shadow and how bright are those light areas are going to be.

Sharp edges or fuzzy edges on painted objects will effect the focal point also. It's like when you look at something straight on the object being looked upon is focused and sharp. But the objects in your peripheral vision are more toward the blurry side of things. This principle also needs to be included as you paint.

At this stage of the painting it's the rock formation areas getting the attention with focus on the color values. I'm not so much concerned with the details at this point just looking at structure and how light effects it. The details of the cracks and crevices in rock will be painted in later on.

Right now the painting demands thoughts of how does the light effect the overall painting? Are the highlights in the right areas? Where are the shadows? Is the light dominating more or less in key areas? Where is the sight of the painting's viewer focusing on in the composition?

It is amazing when painting in the upper trees how the change pulls the view from the lower section up to this area. But then that is what should happen because this area is now where the darkest dark is and the lightest light is. This is one of the aspects of painting which makes it a marvel and so enjoyable. That an artist can control the attention of sight with a brush.

This being the case with dark and light colors, we need to think about this when painting the rock formations. How much contrast we create can pull the sight of a viewer into a new area or further away. We need to consider if we what to paint the rock formation lighter or darker as we paint. Fore thought is demanded on this matter.

Setting in color values helps in placement of key features. Painting in the large rock formations gives the art composition a truly impressive feeling. Seeing that this is just the base painting step, it assures us of a solid painting because the foundation is sure.

The rough drawing is step one. Getting the elements into perspective so that the art work looks similar to the reference material can sometimes be challenging. A resemblance is all that is really needed in this oil painting and as far as I want to take this painting. Anything more would be photographic or realism oil painting. That is not what I want to achieve in this oil painting.