Read Introduction on Landscape Oil Paintings

Follow Oil Painting Lesson Step 1

Follow Oil Painting Lesson Step 2

Follow Oil Painting Lesson Step 3

Follow Oil Painting Lesson Step 4

Follow Oil Painting Lesson Step 5

Follow Oil Painting Lesson Step 6

Step 5

For the fifth step-finishing off the treetops – fold the paper until you can hold it firmly. Again, dip just the tips of the paper in the paint on your palette. Choose light colors. Our most important consideration is that we want to create a representation of leaves, but don’t just rely on green. Light red will accomplish the same thing. We’ll really see what light can accomplish when you let it dance to its heart’s content. Light will illuminate and exalt even a portrait. How much more will it do when your subject is an organic miracle of nature that lives and dies with the sun! So put on l a little red with your green or pale blue. By the time you’re done, the tops of your trees can be crazy quilts of color, a lovely swirling hubbub of leaf and sunshine with tiny patches of sky peeking through. The novice just paints an object, dull and alone, but a good artist paints it in the full complexity of its relationship to the forces around it. He knows that when you look at a leaf, a good percentage of what you actually see are other elements that are forever playing upon it.

There you are in front of your easel with a wad of toilet paper dipped in light, spangly colors. Now press the paper gently against the canvas so that you cover the upper limbs of each tree. For all intents and purposes, the relatively large circles of thin bright paint that you create this way will complete the essential part of your landscape painting.

Using the same sort of easy wrist movement, drag another wad of toilet paper, also dipped in light colors, against your sky. The more interesting the color scheme, the more vibrant and convincing will be your background.

Again, I would advise that you spend a few moments I looking at the sky. Study its dynamism. The clouds pour I into the blue, while streaks of color from God-knows-where stretch across the horizon. So for goodness’ sake don’t hesitate to be creative with your color scheme. You’ll surprise yourself with just how new and delightful an unexpected burst of orange or pink can be. Naturally, not all your dabs of color will be equally pleasing. Often you’ll be disappointed by a blue that’s too pasty or a yellow that’s too deep. It’s a lot like cooking. Even the best chef puts in too much paprika once in a while. Fortunately you don’t have to eat your art, so the situation is considerably less critical.

Scumbling

Scumbling is painting thin layers of opaque light color over dark colors, which gives a broken color effect. Scumbling is rather like glazing, but with light colors over dark. The colors mix optically rather than on the palette, and the result is shimmery, opalescent.

Stippling

Stippling is similar to scumbling but you are adding more texture than contrast. Same strokes of paint but you are working for a texture effect instead of a color effect.

Sponging

Is using a seas spong to create dimensional paint. It is similar to stippling but you are using a thicker surface and creating a more dynamic color and texture effect.

These three techniques should be used on a dry canvas or the under painting with a thick brush head. These techniques can be used with all types of paint but they work best with acrylic or oil.

Best practice would be to add the under painting. Under painting  is an initial layer of paint applied to a ground, which serves as a base for subsequent layers of paint. Then use these techniques to add more layers of detail to bring out the focal points of the painting. These techniques would be characterized as a more impressionistic style of painting. Impressionism is an art movement beginning in France in the 1870′s, founded by an individualistic group of artists including, among others, Claude Monet, Auguste Renoir, Alfred Sisley and Camille Pissarro; all concerned themselves mainly with the components of light and the immediate visual impression of a scene using unconnected colors that were to be mixed by the eye; bright colors and bold brushwork were often used to achieve these impressions.

When using these techniques in your paintings start small and always remember less is more. If you add to much texture and contrast to your work it can become very chaotic. I call it tunnel vision. Always keep the big picture and try not to get lost in adding more detail to your work.