Private Commission - Ground work

Horizon work

Remember, composition, colors, and values have already been worked out in my study.  So, I can go right to direct painting.  This is really fun!  The push and pull of the wet paint can be felt through the brush.  Exciting!!

Close up of Back Ground

The sky is set...now for the landscape.  I generally work from the horizon forward.  Things on the horizon are the farthest away from you and therefore smaller in size with less chroma and lighter and greyer than in the middle or foreground.

I will digress a moment.  My canvas choice is one with a medium texture and tooth.  The rough surface enhances the look of landscape elements.  The nature of oil paint allows little bumps and grooves in the canvas to give an extra highlight to the viewer as light hits them.

Close up of Middle Ground

 As I work forward I continually adjust values and chroma of color.  If all is working right colors appear to be the same whether they are in the fore ground, middle ground or back ground.  Example:  a tree at the horizon appears to have the same color as a similar tree in the foreground.  But, if you actually put the tree colors next to one another on a grey palette you can see the difference in value and chroma.  That is the "trick" to getting distance in a landscape painting.

There is a lot to think about when painting a landscape:  value, chroma, direction of light, kind of light, time of day, type of day, windy or still, etc., etc., etc.  And water adds more challenges:  is it deep, shallow, muddy, clear, still, moving, wind blown, etc.,

Visit my blog again to see how I handle the foreground and then tackle the water.