I Am Painting - Lessons and Tutorials
Acrylic Landscape Lessons
How to Paint Landscapes
Understanding background, middle ground and foreground in a painting is key to realism in How to Paint Landscapes. Using the three correctly creates depth which is one of the most important parts of creating a successful landscape painting. Paintings without depth are flat and boring.
Another term used to represent back, middle and foreground is layering. The artist should plan what subjects will be in the painting. By subjects I mean anything, sky, trees, hills, mountains, etc. When you layer you simply put one item in front of another.
Lets start in the background. If your painting has a sky, this will be the first thing painted. I usually start by wetting the sky with white gesso. Add whatever color you are using to the top and blend downward. This will create a lighter color near the horizon giving the illusion of depth . The next layer in the background should not be of much detail either. Mountains, for example should be a color just a little darker than the sky. The further away you want them to appear will determine how much detail you give them. You could add more layers of mountains with peaks overlapping for moredepth. Each mountain or layer that you add will be slightly darker that the previous.
A good example of middle ground layering using the same example could be by adding a middle ground row of bushes and trees. Again, use a color slightly darker that the closest mountain. Paint in the trees, bushes or fields. Paint in a few tall trees that extend up in front of some of the mountains. This will make the mountains or background really look like they are in the distance.
The foreground layer of the painting will contain the most detail and should be the darkest or most vivid in color. I usually add an eye stopper on both sides in the foreground of my paintings. An eye stopper is simply a bush or tree or something that keeps the eye from wanting to go off the painting. It keeps the viewers attention in the painting. Items in the foreground will contain the most detail. For example, if you have some leaves on trees that are to appear very close, you might add a few simple lines in the leaves to appear like veins or a tiny rain drop ready to drip.
Remembering and using these layering techniques will make your paintings appear more realistic and appear to have depth. It is a simple concept that should add life to your landscape painting.
How To Paint Landscapes In Acrylic Includes 13 lessons in one e-book Plus Free Water Color Painting Using Acrylics!
Thats 5 additional lessons Instant Access
Even if you have never picked up a paint brush, you will be able to follow my techniques. You will learn what supplies you need and how to getting strarted.
Tips for Painting Trees and Grass
Trees. To paint pine trees, use a fan brush. Start by holding the fan brush vertically to dab in the trunk of the tree. Then use the flat side of the fan brush to dab in branches. The branches do not need to be even or symmetrical and will actually look unreal if they are too perfect.
Grass. Underpaint the area where you will have the grass in a darker shade of green. Fill your brush with the green paint and use upward brush strokes. Use your No. 10 or No. 6 bristle brush. Add individual blades of grass in a lighter green shade (mix green with white or yellow to attain your desired color) and use a thinner brush or script brush to paint in blades of grass using upward strokes.
Painting Trees
No matter which type of tree you are painting view the overall silhouette or shape that the tree forms. Abandon or empty space is called negative space and without it, your tree will not look accurate. Notice pockets and spaces where you can see through the branches. When you paint the foliage or the pine needles make sure that you leave this abandon or negative space.
There are two different types of trees. Deciduous trees lose their leaves every year and appear different in colors throughout the different seasons. Evergreens may vary slightly, but universally look the same all year long.
1. Paint in the tree trunk. You may not see a lot of the trunk in evergreens, but paint it in anyways. The reason that you do this is because it will define the height, and slant or non-slant of the tree. Parts of the trunk will be clearly visible in forest or older pine trees. Most trees do not grow straight upwards. As the tree grows and becomes heavier, the trunk curves and the branches bend. The lower part of the tree is always thicker or wider. The trunk and branches will get smaller as it grows upward. A good color to use for tree bark is gray. Very seldom are trees brown in nature.
2. Paint the branches. When you paint the branches make certain that you overlap some of them. This will create the illusion of depth. Branches as well as the trunk, get smaller the further out or up they go. Try not to make the branches curved lines. Take the liner brush with thinned color and pull it upwards and away from the trunk.
3. Paint in the leaves or needles. The first thing to realize is that you could never paint every single leaf on a tree. When you paint leaves you dab clusters of paint make the viewer believe they are leaves. Use a few variations of color as you work. When painting pine needles you also dab the paint on. I like to use the fan brush when doing this. Keep the brush horizontal and dab lightly at the top working downward. Leave some empty or abandoned space where the trunk shows through. Get wider and use more pressure and paint as you work downward. Make sure you keepthe brush horizontal at all times.
Remember that trees often grow in clusters or groups. They are seldom the exact same sizes and in nature, there are usually dead trees and branches. Adding trees to your landscape painting is a great way to add interest and variety.
How To Paint Wild Flowers
Artists have a unique way of "tricking" the viewer to see what they want them to see in a painting. As a beginning artist one of the things that brings your art to life is the presence of flowers. It's not difficult to create the illusion of flowers, especially in backgrounds. Later on as you develop your skills, you may want to use more detail especially in close up views.
If you study and really look closely at fine works of art, you will notice that often times flowers are mere dabs of paint scattered about. One thing that should be noted is that a good artist will not randomly dab color throughout the piece. It is important for color to be strategically placed throughout thepainting . For example, if you dab touches of orange exactly equally spaced throughout your background it won't look very natural. On the other hand if you cluster some small patches in a couple of locations it will be much more effective. You should also make sure that your flower clusters blend into thepainting. By this I mean if you are dabbing a cluster of orange and white flowers, you should use some grass color, darken it a bit, and cast a shadow beneath the flower patch. This will "set" it into the painting.
You should choose a fairly small bristle brush to dab your wildflowers. Practice first and do not make all of them the same. Its easy to go overboard so every now and then stand back and view yourpainting from a 6 foot distance. Also know when to stop. Sometimes less is more. This is especially true in painting.
As with all items, keep wildflowers in perspective. Those in the distance will appear smaller. As you work forward you will make the clusters larger. If you want to detail those in the foreground you could paint tiny petals with a dab of color in the center or on top. Don't worry about too much detail though. Remember it's about making the viewer believe there are flower there.
A few more tips to use when painting wildflowers is to add a few sprigs of grass or sticks here and there. This is especially effective in the foreground. And of course don't forget to make things larger in the foreground. When painting wildflowers, daisies, or any flowers, don't worry about painting stems. Remember illusion, the viewer will automatically assume that the stems are there!
How to Paint a Beautiful Landscape
Painting landscapes with acrylics is both relaxing and rewarding. Let your personal style come through and you should find this a great hobby.
Acrylic paint is a medium that can look like an oil painting or a watercolor painting when finished. It depends on the artists’ style and how thick they apply the color. Either way, starting out by painting landscapes helps to get your feet wet in the world of painting.
You can learn to paint a landscape on canvas paper, canvas board or stretched canvas. I always suggest practicing your techniques first on an inexpensive canvas or acrylic paper. I am a sort of perfectionist with my art, and tend to become frustrated easily. By practicing first, then applying it to the finished piece I feel more comfortable. You may be satisfied without practicing. Painting is about what makes you feel good!
Keep your supplies handy. Have your spay or mister bottle handy to keep the acrylics moist, keep a water supply handy for the brushes, and always have paper towels handy.
Let’s create a simple landscape painting. Lightly sketch in a horizon line with pencil about ¾ of the way down the canvas. In this case out emphasis will be the sky because only ¼ of the painting is land.
Wet the sky with white gesso. Add some color to the same brush and starting at the top, use criss-cross strokes and blend down to the horizon line. Use any color. Daytime skies can be blues & purple. Nighttime skies can be these colors just darkened with reds and oranges near the horizon. Blend the colors as little or much as you like. Now your sky is done.
Now it’s time to create your land or hills. Chose a medium to light green and with horizontal strokes lay in the distant field or hill. Keep things interesting by sloping it. Change the green slightly by darkening it and add a couple of more layers of fields as you work your way forward. The darkest layer should be in the front of the painting.
That’s it! Anything else you add to your painting is a plus. One or two distant trees would be neat or maybe just a single bird in the sky, low to the horizon.
I hope this little lesson helps inspire you to have fun painting landscapes with acrylics.
Click Here for instant
access and download of this
58 page Landscape Painting
"cheat" book along
with the FREE WaterColor book
Want to learn how to paint better?
Do you know what to practice so that you improve your artistic talent sooner rather than later. Let experienced artist Richard Robinson show you exactly what you need to know and what you need to practice.
