Birling - stage 1

The tonal underpainting stage of "Birling", my next small painting trying things out. I am starting to narrow down what I'm trying to do which is basically to find a "look" to my paintings that people recognise as my work in both the Imaginative Realism work I do and also the "fine art" stuff as well. This carries on from "Toscana" in that it's trees against sky but this time against a summery blue sky with white clouds. What I am homing in on is dark against light, dark foreground as though in shadow against lighter background, still following the mantra of "Lose Edges, Join Shapes" by joining all the dark foreground elements together. This should make the design of the picture come through more.
The trees are at Birling Gap on the South Coast of the UK, the prevailing wind having blown them into growing this way.
This stage was first very simply "drawn" up with a small bristle brush using a mix of Burnt Sienna and Winsor Violet thinned with Liquin and then the tonal underpainting applied with a rag (the clouds being rubbed out with a clean rag and turpentine) using the same paint mix.
Oil on linen 16" x 12".