For the painting itself, I painted directly onto the paper without sketching beneath. Using classical techniques, the sky was painted first, followed by the distant hills, and lastly the foreground elements. I wanted to show the effect that distance had on the colors. Each layer was allowed to dry before adding the next, giving the image greater depth of perspective. The slide used for this image is too dark to show it, but the foreground trees are the most detailed, with subtle variations of blue-greens against the earthy yellow-greens of the grasses.