Learn to Paint

The best part about painting landscapes is that exactness doesn’t really matter. Some artist are drawn to paint old rustic barns, while others choose water and beach scenes. It really doesn’t matter what your focus is as long as you have a plan and practice a few creative artistic techniques.

Start by having everything ready at your work area. You will need paints, paint brushes, water or thinner, paper towels, a mister or spray bottle if you are working with acrylics and canvas or canvas paper to paint on. A palette keeper is a plastic narrow box where you keep the paint you are using. You simply put plastic lid on and save the paint for your next session. If you have an easel you may find painting more enjoyable. You should also work when and where the lighting is good.

I personally have never been a fan of painting outdoors, due to the inconvenience of hauling my supplies to the location. I have found that a dedicated art room or other location in my home works well. I like to work from photographs or tutorial books.

It sounds simple but you need to study your subject, or photograph. Look at where the horizon is, the colors in the picture and distant items compared to middle and forward items. Use a soft pencil lightly sketch where all the relevant items will go.

Starting in the background of your picture first paint the sky. If the horizon line is two-thirds of the way down the canvas, I paint the entire two-thirds with my sky even if most of it is covered with trees and shrub. This way when you paint in the trees you can leave negative space and the sky will show through. You can add clouds if you prefer now. One mistake beginners usually make if that they use pure white and they make the clouds small like little cotton balls in the sky. Mix white or white gesso with some color like blue, purple or brown. This makes a nice gray cloud. Be careful though, a little of these colors added to white goes a long way. You can always add a second layer of clouds using pure white now.

Now you can lay in the land. You can do the next few steps in layers by sloping the land one way and then the other a few times until you reach bottom of the canvas. First use a burnt or raw sienna to create an under-painting. Next if you want a grass look, dry brush in a dull green. The reason you are dry-brushing the green is because you don’t want to completely cover up the sienna. Allow some of the dark to show through. It should appear to be shadows. When you are done you can add some brighter green in the same manner to create highlights.

Now add some trees. Use a liner brush with some of the sienna color. Add a little blue to it and gray it down. Trees in nature are rarely brown. The most distant trees will be much smaller and have less detail. If it’s summer, then dab in some green for foliage. If you want to get real creative, use the same colors and dry-brush in some shadows.

Have fun and don’t forget to sign your painting.