In July I spent a great Saturday with artists from the California Art Club at the Sunol Regional Wilderness. A nice breeze in the morning and a warm afternoon. Flag Hill caught my eye. It had interesting rocks exposing the ridge structure underneath.
I thought a lot about the sky value in this one, the convention is to make the sky pale at the horizon, but when looking up at a ridge against the middle of the sky you do get the sense that the blue in the sky is a darker value than the gold on the hills. I pushed this as dark as I dared, I've ruined paintings in the past using french ultramarine to push the sky too dark.
I have a new favorite blue, which I purchased only because regular cobalt blue was out of stock, cobalt blue deep, which has a lot more strength as a mixer than regular cobalt.
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