Friday, January 7, 2011

Class Demo Jan 2011 part 1

New demonstration painting for Thursday's class. A landscape that well illustrates the concept of perspective.

The sky is an early winter's sky, a soft gray mixed from titanium white, ultramarine blue and Van Dyke brown. It is a lighter value closer to the horizon which helps give the illusion of space. The distant mountains are painted with the same mix of colors, only with more blue. The top edge is a soft, slightly blended edge, again to illustrate the distance and the wispy clouds along the top.

The mist is also the same three colors mixed, but a slightly lighter value. It is blended with very soft edges to give the soft feel of the mist.

The distant trees have some sap green mixed in the same core mixture. Soft dabs of various shapes and sizes give just a hint of a tree line. The trees are softly blended into the mist to keep the look at a far distance. TIP - keep the trees at each side of the canvas slightly taller than those in the middle to keep the viewer's eye in the painting.

The grass has the same color mixture with the addition of a touch of yellow and some cad red in spots. The grass has at least 3 values, the far distance is a lighter value than the mid ground and the grasses closest to the viewer is the darker value. By using at least 3 values, the grass lies flat rather than appearing as a green wall. All lawns or fields of grass need some warm tones in it as well as the greens to help it appear natural, interesting and inviting.

The lane is painted with 3 values as well to help it appear flat and not floating in the air. It is painted with some of the original grey mixture with more brown added. A couple of streaks of white laid out as tracks then blended horizontally give the appearance of tire tracks in the dirt.

Next I will add in the trees and fence lining the lane.

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