Spring Acrylic Class 2011

Acrylic Project – Utah Fall

You should be up to the point where you have your sky and the hills in, now you need to put in the trees on those distant hills. Just like those distant hills the colors you use will be lighter and grayer in color, remember these are several miles away so there is a lot of atmosphere between where the photographer stood and those distant hills, you as the artist need to translate what you see in the photo to your canvas, this is where your powers of observation will come in handy and it is something that every artist needs to practice.

In the photo I want you to notice that the trees on those distant hills are just shapes. You know that they are evergreen trees because one, there are evergreen trees in the foreground also because we have all seen scenes similar to this so our left brain names the shapes and wants to move on. As a painter, you need to analyze the photo so you know how to recreate what you see to make it believable. I saw several people in my classes painting actual trees on those distant hills because the left brain is saying "those are evergreen trees" but the brain is a funny thing: It knows those are evergreen trees but if you paint them as trees it doesn't look right and you know it. If you have to, turn your photo upside down to see that those trees are just a series of different shapes. I harp on this because I haven't convinced you yet that all we as artists can do whether it is through painting, drawing or some other medium, we can only create shapes, if the thing is there when we are done then more power to ya.

Now to paint those shapes I was using a #8 flat bristle brush. I am working on a 16 x 20" canvas so that is a good size for me, if you are working on a smaller canvas use a smaller brush like a #4 or #6 flat either bristle or sable, what ever you have that is comfortable for the size canvas you are working on.

The mixture of paint is Hooker's green, white or gesso, touch of blue and either a touch or purple or sienna. What you want when you have mixed your colors together is a light, soft bluish-gray green. This color can vary a little but should stay light, just slightly darker than the color you have for the hills themselves. Holding the flat brush vertically create various shapes. There are clumps, there are single shapes, clumps that blend together. Tall ones, short ones, some that are on top of the hills and others that grow down the hills. Look at the photo, you will notice that the clumps grow down the sides following the angle of the hill they are growing on, your trees need to do the same. You also need to be very aware of your strokes so you don't line them up and make them all the same size and the same distance apart or you will have a tree farm instead of a wild forest. I saw quite a few tree farms even after I warned against it so please be aware of this, it is a human thing to want everything to line up and be organized Nature is not so obliging.

There are also some deciduous trees you can suggest adding some orange with a little mud from your brush (this will gray the color) or some lighter green (sap and a touch of yellow plus the mud) these are rounded shapes but just shapes. Work back and forth between these elements so they fit in together. Let this dry before moving on.

I know it is hard to see in the photo but there is a layer of trees both evergreen and deciduous trees just behind the middle ground trees. These are just slightly grayer and lighter than the tree in front of them. We use the same colors we used for the distant trees we just use less white. These trees are darker but not as dark as the trees in front of them. This is how you create distance in your paintings with the layers of varying degrees of grayed color.

I used my #8 flat bristle brush, mixed Hooker's green, blue, touch of purple and a touch of gesso (white) just enough to lighten the color, with the full edge of my brush to the canvas, I lightly make a straight mark vertically about two brush edge lengths, I did not make the entire trunk of the tree, just the top. The step by step I did for the watercolor class applies to the acrylic class when it comes to making evergreen trees so look at that if you need clarification. Starting just down a bit from the top, using the corner of my flat brush on the line I just made, I mad a quick "swishing" stroke with my brush. As I move down the tree the strokes become longer and more congested until it is a mass of color. Only the very tops of these trees are individual, they become more dense as they grow together and branches overlap. Keep in mind these are not Christmas trees they do not have perfect shapes, they aren't spaced evenly and they are at different heights.

You can use the same color mix for the deciduous trees along that line as well, just add some yellow to the mix and or orange, it will still look green but those colors will lighten and change the "flavor" of the color.

This is where we stopped so I hope that everyone can be to this point for our next class, with only 2 more classes we have a lot of ground to cover to finish this up, don't think so much, just paint ;-)

I was asked if when I am home and I see something I don't like about a painting do I fix it and go on in class, the answer is "No" because you can learn from my "mistakes". They aren't really mistakes, more like adjustments I think I need to make before I move on. You painting may not need these adjustments but you need to see them done so in the event you need tom make adjustments to your painting– and it will happen - you need to see that all is not lost, it is just a puzzle to be solved. See you in class.