One time I did a quick painting of Half Dome. I was into doing all the shadows in magenta and blue and then using Naples yellow for the brown and grey rocks. I had finished it to some degree, and I walked over to another guy who was painting nearby. He was trying to use grey to represent Half Dome. He wanted to match the color perfectly. I said, “Look at what I did.” He took one look at my magenta, and his mouth dropped.
Being there, it’s much easier to manipulate the scene. I’ve drawn those rocks so many times that I was bored with trying to paint it the way your eye perceives it. That’s why I started manipulating the color. I did a whole series of Yosemite with magenta and Naples yellow.