The process of designing and painting a landscape - Diptychs and Triptychs

This is the planning stage and I am doing sketches and tracings of my subject matter. I first do thumb nails just to decide on design. Is it going to be a triptych or diptych? How am I going to use the space. It is never about copying the photo. It is about designing and deciding what I like and will include and what to exclude. Simplify! There is always time to put more stuff in the picture plane. Then I do sketches to find the flow and rhythm of the painting... anchoring locations of shapes to make my design stronger. Even finding where MY thirds will be above and beyond the fact that a landscape is a 1/3 1/3 1/3. My division, again is to explore design and what is relevant to me in this landscape. It is always about finding something personal, effective and new to the naked eye.