I am working on a new piece based on a photo I took on holiday a few years ago. From memory, I must have taken this from a kayak because I am looking into the harbour between 2 islands, Parerangi and Mutuhi. I have been a bit of a slave to the photo and have now worked out my approach via value study and colour roughs. I have opened up the scene a bit more and enhanced the morning mist to provide more contrast where I want it. The NZ bush is dense and my difficulty was trying to keep some aerial perspective without making the bush bland or too dark/warm and overbearing thus making my foreground and in particular the pohutukawa tree to the left less of a feature. Photo, value study and 2 colour roughs attached. I am still considering the colour/value as I think it is all still too dark. Any and all comments welcome.