This was supposed to be a nice blue cloudless sky but when I started painting on the wet background it already started drying out. I didn’t realise as I was mixing my blue and playing with the masking tape.

As it turned out I rather like the effect I got, looks like summer clouds with a little movement.

Now this is where it pays to use your own photos to paint from. Walking around Uluru and getting up close aloud me to see all the different textures on the rock.
I could see where the rain had channeled groves and created holes that support life.
The same water that cascaded down in waterfalls, stained the rock a rainbow of different colours. So when I was painting these I painted them as the rain would fall, down the rock.

The little blobs of dark brown on the rock aren’t small pits they are actually large caves, the scale of this thing is enormous.

I added some base sand allowing a little extra for overlap as you want the shrubs to grow over the sand and not stop where it meets the sand.

Here you can see I added a block colour of yellows and greens where the grass tuffs and shrubs will go. I also started adding little trees and shrubs in the distance.

I also changed the big cave shadow to look more like a heart shape.

Now all the fun begins, hours and hours of grass, I found the trick is to make each tuff of grass a little different. Always work from background to foreground that way the grass can overlap the dirt and other shrubs.

More grass and shrubs this time with a few flowers added.
At this point i got fed up with all the grass and was finding any excuse to get away from my painting, so I called it a day and updated my blog.

Todays challenge was adding dead grass around the base of all the shrubs and grass tuffs. I still haven’t mastered them yet but I guess this will come in future paintings.

I got my love for this painting back the next day and worked well into the night to finish it off.

I reworked the dead grass and added more shrubs and a few purple and yellow flowers.

I spotted a twig that looked like a little snake so I added this as some people think the outback is overrun by snakes, my dear stepmom included.

I also added a few trails of ants as they are everywhere once you stop walking and look around. See some of my videos for this.

I revisited the distance shrubs, added bits of red into the dirt so it wasn’t to even. Now to mess the painting up a little I added stray grass, twigs and a few leaves to make things a little more realistic.

Overall I’m happy with the outcome, even though this painting took twice as long as I was expecting.

I think the more Landscapes I paint the more wildlife I’ll add as its good to have a few hidden bugs and critters for people to find.

Oh and the grass drove me mad so more dirt or rocks next time.