This demonstration will be about creating a warm glowing scene at the beach. Using what you have already learned about color and value, we’ll create a complex scene with simplified shapes and color / value relationships. The relationships of color are very important, you must gauge everything off the major color in a scene. In
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I think that few would argue over the abilities of Monet, Dali, Bierstadt, Rembrandt, or Sargent to create beautiful paintings, but with all the differing styles, everyone has an opinion regarding the secret recipe. The true secret to a beautiful painting is not simply technique, the flare of a brush, or the speed of creation,
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Rivers, creeks, and streams are one of the ways that water appears in landscapes. Water can add so much to a scene by creating path and breaking up colors. The water in this stream had the typical grays, blues, and purples, but also browns, yellows, and greens reflected from the surround objects. There is plenty
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Skies can be either the dominant or supporting part in a landscape. When they are dominant, let them fill up at least two thirds of the image. If the sky takes up that much space, it must have something interesting to support that. A blue sky or sky with small color gradations should not be
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Trees are so diverse. To summarize them is a challenge, but not impossible. They can be painted on any number of scales but it goes back to finding shapes. It’s especially important with leafy trees to define interesting sky holes to create negative space. Negative space is formed by the absence of branches or leaves
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The format of a landscape can be used with any outdoor scene, or even a large indoor scene. Here are some examples of outdoor landscapes with hills, trees, rocks, flowers and all manner of subjects. Landscapes can comprise distant, sweeping vistas or nearby, detailed objects; both are suitable for fantastic paintings. If you have ever
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The purpose of a curving path for the viewer’s eye is to enlarge the space inside the painting and create visual interest. The sketch below shows how the curving shape of foam can help create an interesting composition.
The triangle composition works for several reasons. One reason is that it contains an odd number of supporting points. Our minds tend to find even numbers and formal symmetry more mundane than odd numbers and uneven spaces. It likely is related to the balance we truly experience in life. For example, a cone seems much
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One basic form of composition separates one vertical side and one horizontal side from the rest of the painting. This shape is similar to the letter “L” so why not call it that. The reason this kind of composition works well is because it is not formally symmetrical and so it follows the rules of
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Balance is the proper distribution of color, value, and size weights in a painting. See some more in-depth discussions on calor and value in the color section! To achieve informal balance (the most interesting kind), these should not be even or else we would violate our compositional rule of even numbered or even proportioned pieces.
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