A photograph doesn't give you the right perspective, its too flat, two dimensional. Try it sometime, then bring the finished painting to the actual location, you'll see exactly what I mean.

There really is no “typical painting” as far as time goes. Even the size of the piece isn't always a factor. Some pieces come to me easily some I struggle with.

I bring a camera to give me another perspective. Between my valve painting and photos from different angles I am able to better assemble a finished painting.

It depends. If you have enough space, try to keep several paintings going at once.

All the time, some paintings I just cannot seem to get the way I want, so I'll set them aside, or I'll get excited about one painting I'm working on and lose interest in another.

These unfinished pieces I keep in stacks on the shelf. I'll look through them occasionally and sometimes I'll see what was blocking me before and save the piece. Sometimes adding or subtracting from the painting until it barely resembles the original piece.

Dawn or dusk, when the landscape takes on the color and feel produced by the rising or setting sun, lots of orange and pinks without direct sun to wash it out.

No, I just drive or walk until something catches my eye. Although, often, I will see someplace and know this would be a good spot in a different light, or time of day, than I happen to be there. So I'll make a note to try again at the appropriate time.

I lay my palette out exactly the same every day. Starting from left to right, cad. yellow, lemon, cad lemon, deep Indian yellow, yellow ochre, cad red med., aliz, crimson, red oxide trans., brown oxide trans., sepia, viridian green, earth green, green umber, cerellaw blue, ultramarine deep, Prussian blue,, paynes gray, titanium white.

Every painting of mine starts with an orange wash (cad yellow deep mixes equally with alizarin crimson and thinned with turpentine), this creates my underpin or grisaille. I wash in my shadows with sepia and Prussian Blue, mixed and thinned, and I just wipe out for my light values.

Yes, the under-painting has been used by artists for centuries. Many of the Hudson River Valley artists used a burnt sienna wash.

I think the most common is gray as it is neutral.

Well, just speaking for myself, the orange seems to add certain warmth or glow to the painting. No matter how many layers of color I use. Also, this gives the piece an “old world” look and feel, which I have always been attracted to.

Oil paints flatten out when drying, they also darken considerably. An oil painting should be painted “lean to fat”, meaning start with oil thinned to assure drying. The fatter the paint, the longer the drying time. Painting thin over fat will produce cracking as the top coat will dry before the bottom coat has settled.

Also, you should save your light until last as they dry even slower and you have to use several coats to achieve a real bright “Pop.”

I always have several paintings in progress at one time, not only does it allow me to keep painting but I think staring at one painting for a long period might cause me to grow tired of it or overwork it. One of the biggest challenges to an artist is “knowing when to stop!”

Keep walking when outside. Or in the studio keep stepping back. This is very important, as it gives a different perspective.

There id no BAD painting. Don't get frustrated, as every painting can be re-worked or totally re-done. It's only paint! If things are going good or bad, just keep painting, just repeating the action over and over will help you develop your own style. Enjoy painting for its own sake, I'm 54 years old, I've enjoyed many failures and some successes, yet painting is what I truly love, so at least for today, this is the best life I've had yet!