Culloden WORK IN PROGRESS

The very first beginning of my Culloden Battle painting.
This is something that moves me greatly. I feel that I have unfinished business at Culloden and as such I want to visit it. I'm not entirely certain why or what it is, just that on a Soul level there's a great hurt and loss there.
Maybe I died there myself, maybe I lost loved ones, maybe my significant other. Whatever it is it is a very deep and intense hurt. It's something I've been aware of since somewhere in the 90s.
I'm explaining this as someone said they were surprised I was going to paint something related to a battle. But to me it's much much more than just a battle. And I think and hope that by painting part of it I can already work through the pain a bit, just like it helped me when I painted my beloved familiar (cat) Bailey when he had to make his transition last year.
Painting something can be very healing and help to get it out of your system. Since I haven't the means to actually go to Culloden anytime soon...

It took me some time to work out the composition I could live with. In essence I wanted to paint the Leanach Cottage, then out of the blue I felt like painting a misty part of the battle behind it. I really liked that, but then got into trouble due to the size of the canvas. It'd work great on a wide and not too tall canvas, not on 40x50cm, that rate.

I felt stuck, which annoyed me as I SO wanted to get on with it! Then I decided to move the cottage a bit to the back and allow the battle to come into the foreground a tad more.
The opposite of what I had originally wanted, but it seemed the only thing that actually worked.
I don't care about perspective differences in size of the cottage and the people as it's a bit of a fantasy thing anyways so I don't feel it matters.

The soldiers will be painting in in full detail, then I will put them in a misty setting. Hooray for having bought zinc white which is rather transparant! I hadn't expected it to need it again so soon after the Great Wall!

The cottage on the other hand will be bright, in full (sun) light. If I can pull it off the way I want it to look it will likely be quite unusual. Normally things in the back are less detailed and bright and everything in the foreground is.
I'm doing it the other way round.

Wish me luck!

This is the cottage and soldiers blocked in. Detail and colours will follow. The sky will remain as is as during the battle of Culloden it was a misty grey day, they had rain and even sleet.
Plus, it was fought on a dank moor and bits and pieces of soil flew through the air. I may add a bit of that as well.

Also, there will be more soldiers, but they will be more vague, really in the background and deeper in the mist. I will likely paint those in without any blocking whatsoever. Only these that I've blocked in will be more visible and have some colour.