I recently sold a printed copy of this digital painting of Venzia Italy! But I Am willing to give a digital copy to you!

As always, I will give five chances to win this original digital painting for free. See below.

As always I start with an under painting or drawing. This helps me build the composition and keep things flowing in the painting. This is very important in my work. It does take a few drawings to get everything into place but the final painting is much stronger I believe. It also helps me work out any problems with the painting early on. I try to get my composition and contrast in so when I lay in each layer it will be easier for me.

I try to remember the moments when I take my holiday photos. So I can use them in my paintings. And hopefully I give that feeling of the location into my work. I can still remember the couples holding hands as they walked around the city of Venezia. Holding each other in their embrace in the gondola while on the river. If they are newlyweds or a retirement couple, the passion of Italy stokes the flame of love.

I start laying in my first colors using layers and glazes. This helps me choose the color pallet for the painting. If I don't like the color, contrast, or hue I just adjust it. Much easier then oil painting. I like to start in the sky first. And the reflection of the water since it is the reflection of the sky. The Blues and greens contrast well to give a realistic feel to the sky.

Look how the drawing helps give form to the upper layers of the painting. It really does do most of the heavy lifting. The transparent layers just float over the drawing. In oil painting we call this glazing. We add thicker paint at the end.

Now moving into the buildings, I'm keeping the same colors but use darker and lighter hues. The buildings lead your eye to the back of the painting and into the river. The river leads your eye back into the painting and towards the bridge.

Always keep your viewers eye move through out the painting. If you don't the painting will seem stale and lifeless.

Now I paint around the whole painting. Using colors from other areas to get the painting to feel as a whole. Not miss matched. Layer after layer. Smudge after smudge and painting layers after layers. Adding soft and hard edges. Erase, paint, erase. And after many hours you get something that you can live with.

I now go back into the buildings. I Go back and forth from area to area building up color and contrasts. After many hours I leave the painting and start again the next day. I now lay in thicker color and smudge and blend the paint until I get the feeling of that day, in Paris, on the Seine river.

I hope you enjoyed this post. Thanks for reading my post and please consider #upvoting this post, #following me, and leaving a #comment. If you would like to help me even more please consider re–steeming me so I am able to reach your audience as well. I look forward to posting daily content with all of you.

As always I will give five chances to win this original digital painting for free. Signed by me Angeliki Z to the steemit community.

Why give away my paintings? To give back to the steemit community that supports my posts. Just #upvote my post and leave a #comment on this post so I can let you know that you have won. That simple.

The 5 winners will be picked by random between each level of votes. So, the first painting will be picked between the first 1-10 commenters, second between 11-25 commenters, third between 26-50, the fourth between 51-100, and the fifth between 101-200 comments. Good luck.