Red forest painting + split canvas painting

After discovering the split canvas method and using it to create two painting of the same design I wanted to test out if I could create two paintings the would be set in the same location but focus of different characters and perspectives. Not only that but also change the method each painting was actually produced on top of that as well.
I used the same method of starting messy with a range of colours and shapes for the first painting. I used this method for the elephant piece. I wanted to use a familiar technique for one of the paintings as this gave me a boost in confidence as I knew I've had success using this before and allowed me to anchor myself to that painting as a way or resting from the potentially more complicated process that I hadn't had experience with. Working this way with a mess of colour and shapes instantly breaks that fear of looking at a blank page and not knowing what to do so it cuts out that starting period stress that could effect the overall creativity and freedom of the design.
The second piece of work was created differently and I was inspired by a photograph for this piece that I wanted to use as a base.

 
I have a few photos of this terrarium that unfortunately has seen better days but as a result has provided me with some really nice photographs to use. the terrarium it's self is just the size of a large mayo jar but when zoomed in to take a close up it gave a nice result of depth of field that helped play with the size. The blurred focus gave a similar effect of being able to see shapes or objects in a mess much like the starting process of the first painting. The reason I chose this image was because I already had an idea in mind this time around. I knew I wanted to create a forest after looking at these sets of images so surprisingly this time around even though I was using a different method I found it easier to get the ball rolling and define some key shapes early on knowing where theses pieces were going.

Overall mixing up the methods of painting worked easier than I though, It was only towards the end that I discovered a bit of a problem in that the images weren't sharing the same colour pallet as I kept pushing the first painting further using the colourful mess I'd originally laid down leaving the second painting looking a bit dull in comparison as I used the colour pallet of the photograph. Recently I had discovered a technique through just messing around within photoshop that fixed this issue. What I discovered was that using the stamp tool with a bright image selected as the stamp, I would paint a sporadic mess of colours on a new layer on top of the rest masking out the painting completely. I then go onto the layer blending options and select the 'color' option. This helps to had pockets of colour and texture to the painting that can then be tuned down by turning the opacity on the layer down.
I use that technique on both the images so that they start to share some similar colours. I paint in and remove the colours I like and dislike until I'm happy with the outcome.