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Project: Desert Refuge Final
I only had a few things left to do on my painting before calling it done, you need to decide for yourself how you want to finish you painting. As I always say: If you like your painting the way it is, leave it alone! You DO NOT have to finish it the way I do, if you like it, leave it. At least set it aside for a few days or a week then look at it with fresh eyes, if you can't find anything that jumps out at you, you are done.
To the bank of the levee, I added some quick little grasses or weeds with my liner brush along with a few rocks which were just added with a small sable brush: A light color for highlight, and a mix of blue, alizarin and gesso to make a shadow color. Don't sweat bullets making these rocks, the are too small to be more than blotches.
I also took my #4 flat bristle brush and added some shadows from the trees down the bank. Look at the photo to see where the shadows fall and remember they must follow the contours of the thing it falls on. Study shadows when you see them, it will help you paint them later.
I also took my liner brush and added some individual reeds to the dark shapes I had made earlier. I added light and medium colors of green and gold and even some very dark ones near the bottom.
Remember you need to add enough water into your paint so that the paint is very ink-like, that way it will flow off your brush. You might want to practice before you get to your painting.
I also added some cattails to the tops of some of the reeds with the liner or you can use a small sable. I just used burnt sienna and remember to vary the height so they aren't all in a row.
This is where I will leave my painting for this class. I could come back in and work on it if I feel I want/need to but for a project, I think I am done.
Keep painting and I will see you in class.
Project: Desert Refuge Week 4
This week we fine tuned our under painting before starting on detail. I wanted to add a bit more haze to the bottom of my mountain before I got started on the trees. I used my #6 flat bristle brush and did a dry brush glaze of blue, a touch or sienna and a touch of alizarin and water to make it thin and glazed right across the bottom of the mountain. You do not have to do this if you don't want to, I just felt mine needed a little more.
Next, I made a gray in that same batch of color I just made adding more blue and sienna along with some gesso to make a light gray to add to the top of the levee, this creates the asphalt path on top of the levee. You can add this with a sable brush if you want.
I then added some more highlights to my trees with my bristle brush. The light tan colors are sienna, a touch of orange and white the light green color is Hooker's green, a touch of sienna and/or orange and white.
Be very light with pressure on your brush when you are adding the highlights, this is a dry brush technique.
If you have to, you can go back and add some darks. You can get carried away with highlights then lose the darks, but you do need the dark to show the light.
Next I added detail to the dirt of the levee. Near the water, the dirt is darker because it is getting wet from the water. I started out using burnt sienna, a touch of ultramarine blue and I little gesso to make a cool gray brown. This went all along the levee next to the water.
I was using a wet into wet technique so I was working rather quickly, picking up touches of white and blending it into the darker brown as I moved up the levee with my brush as well as picking up more color from my palette and mixing touches or orange and white as I painted, this gives a variation of color and a more natural look to the dirt. near the top it is very light because the dirt is very dry. And remember to follow the angle of the dirt when you are working on the levee.
The dark color right at the waterline is blue, sienna or umber and only a very little gesso so it stays dark. This I added with a round sable brush to create the "overhang" where the water erodes the dirt. This is not a straight line, it follows the curves of the way the dirt falls from the levee and it will even be hidden in places where dirt has fallen in front of another part of the levee.
This is where we left off in class. Please take the time off to get caught up because from this point we will be starting on the detail so we can get this finished before the end of the semester.
Keep painting and I will see you in class.
Project: Desert Refuge Week 3
In our last class I started by sketching in the outside shape of my rows of trees with my soft vine charcoal to use as a guide as I paint. The charcoal will wipe off with a damp paper towel if I want to make changes.
I under painted the trees using my #6 flat bristle brush. This will be a dry brush technique so be sure to get any excess moisture out of your brush before you start painting.
The brown color was burnt sienna, ultramarine blue and a touch of white (gesso). The green was Hooker's green, UM blue and either the mud on my brush from the brown color or a touch of the gray I have saved from last week (UM blue, burnt sienna and gesso) to gray the green.
The stroke is a scumbling stroke. What that means is your brush is going in all directions. I was mostly using the side of my brush which was very dry, and sometimes the flat part of the brush if I wanted to fill in the area quicker. Look at the photo to see where you are going with your colors and don't forget to leave ragged edges and sky holes. You can put them back in if you need to but do try to leave them first.
Both sides get the same treatment the lighter bushes in the front is just the brown with a bit more white in it.
Adding the reeds and the reflections are similar dry brush strokes using and still using the #6 flat bristle brush.
Use the same colors as you used in the trees for the trees, the reeds are a bit darker and greener than the tree green: Hooker's, UM blue and a touch of the gray.
When creating the above water reeds, it is a quick "flip" stroke. Place the edge of the brush on the canvas then pull and flip. The longer you pull before you flip the longer your reeds will be and don't be afraid to overlap things that will be behind the reeds, that will create depth in your painting.
The reflections are the same but you pull down instead of up and when you have the reeds reflected, lightly pull straight across to create movement.
This is where we left off and I think we now have all of our under painting finished. From here we will start to refine our painting so I hope that you can get your painting to the same point.
Keep painting and I will see you in class.
Project: Desert Refuge Week 2
This week we were still working on the background - the distant mountain and plains.
As I stated when I started this painting, I want to keep it soft and light which can be a challenge for a painter like me who tends to be bold and bright when it comes to color but I am always up for a challenge when painting because at the end, I feel like I have accomplished something as well as learned something along the way.
I needed to add some shadows and highlights to the distant mountain and this proved to be more of a challenge than I expected. Colors I thought were light enough for what I wanted yet dark enough to say shadow tended to be darker than I expected even taking in the fact that acrylics dry darker. I had to modify it adding more white (gesso) but finally got the look I wanted. The colors were white (gesso), a touch of blue, a touch of alizarin, and a touch of burnt sienna so it was just a little bit darker than the color from last week. The highlight color was gesso, burnt sienna with a touch or orange and a bit of the "mud" from my brush to gray the color.
The challenge for most beginners is subtlety not only with color but also applying the color. Before you start adding either color randomly, look at what you are painting and try to understand it. All mountains and cliffs have erosion patterns that form with mostly water. Water washes dirt and rocks down the sides of the hills to form fans at the bottom and washes down the sides. If there are other ridges, the water will flow around those ridges or over cliffs, look for these patterns and the shapes them make in the mountain. They don't come just straight down. Your brush strokes need to follow the direction of the thing they are painting so watch for changes in direction. I was using a #4 flat bristle brush and applying the paint in short choppy strokes to create the terrain of the mountain for both the highlight and shadows.
Next came the desert floor. Again a terrain change. The desert is flatter as it comes off the mountains it does have some hills and dips, for that I used the dame brush but did a series of overlapping long curves strokes.
The color in the back near the bottom of the mountain is yellow, gesso, a touch of orange and some of that mud from the mountain to gray the color.
Because everything we have been doing so far has been in the distance we need to remember that as things go into the distance they become softer and grayer in color and value (darkness) so adding a touch of some of the mud from before will mute the yellow so it isn't so bright.
As you come forward, add touches of the shadow color if you still have some on your palette if not, little touches of blue, burnt umber and a little gesso to keep it from getting too dark, though less gesso as you come into the foreground. Let this dry.
Once this was dry I wanted to push the mountain even further back so I did a dry brush glaze using gesso a tiny touch of blue and alizarin and lots of water to make a very thin mix. Using a #10 flat bristle brush, I loaded it with this thin mix then wiped off most of it from the outside, This will be a dry brush technique so you don't want a lot of color on the brush. Start at the bottom of the mountain, very little pressure on the brush and make a series of circular strokes and work your way up the mountain even going into the sky. This is a good technique to not only push things back but also to add some atmosphere into your painting like dust and moisture. It looks a bit strange when you first apply this color but when it dries it should just leave a hazy look. If it looks way too heavy, you can wipe it off with a damp paper towel while it is still wet then try again.
Once the glazing is dry we added the reeds behind the levee. The golden part is a mix of yellow, a touch of orange and a touch of burnt sienna and a tiny touch of gesso. Should look a bit like mustard.
I used the #4 flat bristle brush. The stroke is a combination of a pat, a push and a lift. Pat the color onto the canvas then push and lift. This will give a ragged edge to the top of the stroke like the tops of the reeds. For the lighter tops, it will be the same stroke but using gesso with a touch of the reed color to make it lighter.
The last thing we did was to under paint the levee. I used the same bristle brush with a mix of blue, umber with a touch of alizarin. Remember what I said about following the shape of the thing you are painting, the sides of this levee are at a slight angle so remember to angle your strokes as you apply your paint.
This is where we stopped for the day, try to have your painting to this point by the next class. Keep painting.
