Top Tips for Painting Landscapes

Welcome back to the studio. In this video we're going to be getting into this little project, a 6 by 12 inch panel, a painting of Wanaka in the South Island of New Zealand. Let's talk oil painting techniques. Now there's a handful of things that I think about and juggle while I'm painting realism and oils. And so I want to share those with you here in this video. Now my goal as a realist oil painter is to create a convincing sense of form, depth, light, and material. But in order to achieve my goal I only have four things within my control that I really need to pay attention to. And that is line and shape. So my drawing, my tonal values, my color, and my edges. So in this video let's break it down. Now I started off with my drawing, a combination of burnt umber and quinacridone magenta. And I've got a ton more color out on my palette. Here they are listed on the screen. And I've mentioned these colors in red that you don't need to rush out and get. They're just kind of nice to have. So with my overall objective here I'm trying to create that illusion of three-dimensionality within two dimensions. And I found that it helps to build things up thinking about things in terms of line and shape, value, color, and edge. So that's where I start with that line and shape with the drawing first. Then I knock in my values. And here I'm working with some of those shadows first in the background and bringing this forward. Now here even though I'm working in the studio this is more or less my plein air painting technique. Sometimes with bigger works it can vary. But you'll notice how I've knocked in those shadows in the background with a much lighter blue note. And the shadows get progressively darker as we come forward. Now here in the South Island of New Zealand we've got a huge variety in the trees that you can find in a rural setting. We've got some pines in here, some poplars, and some willow trees. We've caught them just at the turn of the season with some of that beautiful autumn foliage. But rather than rush ahead and get in those oranges right away I just start off thinking about the shadows. Now I've got some interesting shadows here along this driveway. Paying attention to the way that light cuts across some of these forms I darken the grassy bank and then add a Now the thing I love about this scene is how the driveway invites the viewer in. But we get to see across the farmer's field here into some of those furrows of a crop or something that's growing out there in that paddock. Now I'm very thinly painting in some of these deeper values with a synthetic flat brush. In case you're wondering the brush that I used to draw in my landscape was a synthetic pointed round. Now that my values are locked in let's go and work back into that distance and this time I'm going to use a synthetic flat. Using a combination of my ultramarine, my cobalt, and a bit of quinacridone magenta and white I'm going to add to the violet that's back here in these mountain shadows just solidifying some of these patches of color. Now what's happening over the landscape is that color's shifting. Out there in the distance things start to move towards violet. Our greens lose yellow and they start to shift slightly blue. It's also not as chromatic saturated or intense of a color as what we'll achieve in the foreground. This is what gives our landscape a Now we've had an early snow here in Wanaka and so I'm going to be painting in a bit of snow across these peaks. I've gone for a lighter blue where those shadows are occurring and incidentally this color is going to be pretty close to the blue in the sky. Now that list of four things that I edge this forms a hierarchy and I consider it in that order and I actually build my painting in that order. Now when it comes to edges this is something I really hone in on in the detail phase but even now as I establish the scene here with my block in I'm trying to be careful with some of my edges like where the sky meets the mountain. I'm using a big flat synthetic brush here and working that color across. Notice how it's slightly deeper towards the top of the panel. I've got a bit more cobalt blue, ultramarine blue and just a hint of cobalt teal. Then with the same brush after it's been wiped off on a paper towel of course I start to add some thicker white for the snow across the fronts of those mountains. I continually reload my brush so I'm making effective marks. It's no good trying to expect one brush load of paint to do too much work. I do want a certain freshness in my brushwork and so continually reloading the brush really helps. Now truth be told I'm working from some references here but they're pretty crappy shots that were taken on my iPhone as I was driving down the road. I just happened to shoot an image looking up this driveway and it provided that reference royalty and copyright free for my Tisch Academy members. Not already a member? Well check this out. Hey I hope you're enjoying the video so far. If you want to take your painting techniques even further then you got to check this out. It's called Tisch Academy. It's an art school unlike anything you've experienced before. We're talking over 450 hours of premium painting content and I go live from the studio here every week. Oh and just a side note if you're enjoying this video so far there's a full version over on Tisch Academy. So if you want to create work that you're truly proud of, something that you feel is frame worthy, then check it out. So what are you waiting for? Click that link down below and join us on Tisch Academy. Now back to the video. I start to brush in a bit of a flush of red across the tops of these poplar trees. I love how poplars can break up a landscape. They have a nice vertical character to them that seems to merge the mid-ground with that background. Within a little more Hansi Yellow and some more transparent Yellow Oxide I add just a bit more warmth to some of the deciduous trees just in front. Now back here with my pines they've taken on a bit more of a colder darker vibe and so I've mixed in some Ultramarine Blue and some Burnt Umber with just a hint of Phthalo Blue. Now be careful with your phthalos. They're pretty punchy colors but I love to use them. I'm going to use a little Phthalo Green down here in the immediate foreground. Now because there's a difference between my green in that background and I've gone much more chromatic, saturated, intense with the green here in the mid-ground working towards the foreground, then I'll create that depth. Now just sticking to a couple of ground rules you'll be amazed at how you can create three-dimensional landscapes. Here I'm using a very short Synthetic Flat to create some controlled marks working in a horizontal fashion and bringing that paddock and field down towards the viewer. Now generally I've got three phases in my process. My block-in, my modeling, and detail. But lately in the studio I've reduced this down to two. The block-in and modeling on a little painting like this happens in the same sitting. Then it's relatively straightforward to go over the top of this with more refined mark making. And on this particular painting I was road testing some new brushes that Rosemary & Co sent me. And here I've been using a lot more Synthetics than usual. I've really enjoyed using some of these Eclipse Combers. They're beautiful soft brushes but they allow for softer edges. Perfect for some of this greenery here in the immediate foreground. You can find all my materials by clicking those links in the description down below. Now I've really shaded out the driveway here in the foreground where some of this greenery is casting a shadow due to the low angle of light across some of that gravel. I quite enjoy that because there's generally a tendency that the viewer has to move towards the light. So when we slightly shade out that foreground and we've got some lights in the background or mid-ground it's an invitation to walk into the scene. And with just the chisel edge of my synthetic brushes here I establish those darks for the posts and then come along with a slightly lighter note and just knock in a couple of highlights. You'll notice back here in the distance there's a little shed under this willow tree. So when I'm thinking about a painting and I'm trying to gauge if I'm on the right track I continually ask myself have I achieved form, depth, light, and material? And if I haven't for some reason if it feels lacking or slightly off then I go back to my list. Is there something I could do with my line and shape that is my drawing? If for some reason the painting doesn't have depth then is there an issue with that drawing perhaps my perspective? If I haven't achieved a certain sense of depth or three-dimensionality could there be an issue with the color? The block-in will give you a really good indication if you're on the right track. I gotta say I'm pretty happy with where this is going so far and I've been enjoying playing with some of these new brushes. Now my final consideration on that list that's within my control is edges. And there's one thing that I love to play with when it comes to edges in a landscape and that's cloud. Now on clouds we've got some softer edges and so I feather out some of these shapes. And against some of the snow line out here in the distance I'm going to have a little bit more sharpness. So I load up some of those synthetic brushes edge on and carve out little shapes working along the tops of those mountains. And then down here in the lake we want to have some relatively sharp edges with some nice horizontal lines. All drawn by hand of course. Now here I'm using a very old bristle brush and just carving through that wet paint and achieving a few of those scattered horizontals out there across that flat lake. Now one thing that helps my process enormously is Liquin Original. I love using this medium with my oil paintings. It helps me layer rapidly and build up the surface of a painting. I use no more than one part medium to three parts paint. And that goes for the block in the modeling and the detail. I'm also using just a touch of Liquin Impasto. And for some lighter passages in the painting, like some of these horizontals out here on the lake that are lighter, I've added just a little Impasto medium for some thicker marks. That said I've just loaded the blade edge of this ivory 1 eighth of an inch dagger brush. And this is great for applying those thicker marks up here in the mountain for some really bright snow. Now thickness of the paint surface is something that I think about quite a lot. With my lighter passages I try to make them slightly thicker. Particularly when it comes to snow and bright highlights on the fields and on some of these trees. Now not everything in the painting has to be a clean sharp or a harsh edge. Sometimes we can feather out those edges like with our clouds but also down here with some of these trees. I flick my brush just slightly adding a few highlights to this weeping willow back here. But over on the shadowed side where it meets some shadows in the background it's a little bit softer. Now with the filbert bristle brush and a little more thickness I apply a touch more lighter color, a bit more intensity to that chroma and start adding a bit more to this field. Then work in just a few little shadows to really indicate those furrows in the field. Growing between some of these crop lines. I think this must be kale that the farmers planted that it's going to then feed to the sheep. Now finally with an ivory rigger I add just a few highlights to the fronts of some of these fence posts and a couple of leaves and stalks of grass that are catching that light. Now I saved a couple of the little tiny details for very last. I think it's time that we add just a few highlights to our sheep and firmly establish that tin roof that's on our shed out there in the distance. But there was one little detail in the foreground that I'd like to try and that's the wire that's running between some of these fence posts. Maybe this is too much but I just couldn't resist. And there you have it there's our painting of a little driveway across a farmer's field in Wanaka. Thanks for hanging out with me here in the studio. I'll catch you again in the next one.