Oil Studies- As a series, and their use

When we paint, we tend to paint multiple pieces that are in series- This is partially because when we finish a painting, all we can think is, "Darn, I wish I had done (insert thing here)!" and then, we go ahead and grab a fresh canvas, and complete said thing. Although some people may suggest you constantly move on and forward with different things as you work on them, I'd like to highlight the benefit of working in series, especially when doing studies. Below is an almost finished piece. It culminates different techniques and lessons learned over the past 3 studies I've done.

No name (as of yet)- 16x20" oil on canvas.

"Evening Glow I" 6x10" oil on panel

In this one, I found a color palette for my sky that worked well. It was my first study, so I played with a few things, but didn't really get brave enough with my warm colors in the low horizon (I think I only worked up to naples yellow cool with a little dab of quin rose.) HOWEVER, in this piece, I played with creating snow using a palette knife- a skill I brought to the final piece. 

"Morning Glow I" 8x10" oil on Panel

Here, I experimented with a little bit more movement in my sky (something I took to my final piece), as well as a cooler shadow foreground (something I did not take to the final piece). Palette knife work here was minimized, and that helped me see that I could use a brush as well. 

"Morning Glow II" 10x6" oil on panel.

My final study, this one was done considerably looser. The tree masses were done using a flat brush and using warm translucent colors unblended with each other. I really liked this effect and color combination, so I used them on the final piece. Also, I went even warmer with my sky on this one (something else I liked), and removed the cool foreground colors. I didn't use any palette knife in this one, but that was mainly because there was no room. 

So finally, after having done those three studies, I had some really basic skills to apply:

1. A color palette (I ended up adding cadmium yellow dark to even more intensify things)

2. Palette knife snow effects

3. warm unmixed masses in the foreground of the sky using a flat brush

4. a playfully blended sky 

I begun on a tighter painting using these skills. The first image at the top of this post took about 3 hours after having done all of the studies.