At this stage of the Mendenhall Glacier painting I’ve run out of ideas and I’ve been so absorbed in the painting that I can’t look at it objectively any longer. When I reach this stage I let the painting rest for awhile. I’ll look at it upside down, I’ll evaluate it in the reverse by [...]

Detail of the middle ground in the Mendenhall Glacier painting. I’m nearing the final stages of the glacier painting and now is the time to begin to add detail. I do this by using much smaller dots. The maze of underlying colors from the previous layers of dots give the painting multiple dimensions. I’ve darkened [...]

At this stage of the Mendenhall Glaceir painting I’m adding dark values to the foreground foliage, and loosely defining wildflowers. This is an exercise in developing darks and lights, and making sure that there is enough contrast to define each shape. So, I am occasionally modifying the values of the dots behind the flower shapes. [...]

At this point in the Mendenhall glacier painting you might think that I’m beginning to “loose it”, because I’ve obliterated the three dimensional look of the foliage in the foreground. This is a step many new painters would not have the courage to take. But I’ve layered many, many dots in the foliage using the [...]

At this stage in the Mendenhall Glacier painting I grayed back the mountain at the top behind the glacier using greens and blues mixed with each of their complementary colors, and deleted all definition. Doing this caused the mountain to appear as if in the far distance or obscured by mist. Then, I added more [...]

At this stage in the Mendenhall Glacier painting, I’ve darkened the water and I like how it looks. I’ll deal with the lost lupine later. I also darkened the ridge on the upper left behind the glacier. I’m not sure if I’m satisfied with this yet, it seems to need a lot more work. I [...]

At this stage in the Mendenhall Glacier painting I’m evaluating the values in the glacier, and am convinced that I need to darken the water to give the ice of the glacier more dominance. I’ll figure out how to make the green bushes with the lupine stand out against darker water later. One thing at [...]

In this close-up view of the Mendenhall Glacier painting I begin to add light values of color to the white space that is the glacier. This is the rough initial application, and many more layers of dots will be added before I’m satisfied. I think the water below the glacier needs to be darkened, and [...]

This close up detail of the Mendenhall Glacier painting shows the many values of dark paint used to establish the shape of the branches in the small spruce tree as it is surrounded by the colorful blossoms of the wildflower lupine. Many, many shades of green dots make up the base layer of the foliage. [...]

At this stage of the Mendenhall Glacier painting I’m adding dots to the white spaces between the first layer of dots, using different colors. I’m still working in mostly mid-values, except in the areas between the branches of the tiny spruce trees in the foreground. Here I’m beginning to formulate the shape of the trees [...]

Contrary to popular belief, the dots that I use to create paintings in pointillism, are not round, are not equal in size, and are not carefully placed. This close up of my Mendenhall Glacier painting shows the random placement and irregular size of the dots. In this detail I realize that I need to lighten [...]

At this stage I’m working to establish mid-values in dots throughout the entire canvas on the new Mendenhall Glacier painting. Since the glacier will be mostly light colored values, I’ve left it blank for the moment. Painting with dots can get confusing at this point, so many random strokes are covering up the loose sketch [...]

At this stage of painting the Mendenhall Glacier I started to layer dots over most of the canvas. Doing this will allow me to evaluate the total composition, and establish color values. I’m beginning with the mid tones, and will add the darks and lights after all the mid values have been painted. Gail Niebrugge, [...]

Photo of a large canvas with a pencil sketch of a view of the Mendenhall Glacier, Juneau, Alaska. I began by adding many different colored dots to the top of the canvas showing a section of the mountains above the ice field. At this point I think the colors of the distant mountains are too [...]