How to mix natural greens for landscape painting #1

How to mix greens for landscape painting is a perennial topic and right now it's very topical in the northern hemisphere given the fact the trees are now all in leaf and it's warm enough for plein air painting to start!

I'm going to be exploring the topic of mixing greens over the course of a few posts.

I'm starting with a great video by Jan Blencowe (The Poetic Landscape) on YouTube which very graphically illustrates how you can mix greens for landscapes by mixing black and yellow.

Jan recommends using Mars Black as it's non-toxic.  She also uses transparent yellow, yellow ochre and ultramarine to demonstrate the range of greens which can be produced.

Tony Johansen identifies Mars Black characteristics as being:

• only black available in acrylic ranges
• only major black pigment that is 
• non-toxic, 
• a good drier, 
• safe to over paint 
• can be used in all media without reservation. 
• It is dense and opaque with a warmish brown undertone

One thing - the video was uploaded over two years ago and the reference to website http://www.thepaintingadayproject.com/ is redundant as that site no longer exists. You can find Jan on the two links in the first sentence of this post.

Painting snow - in snow

I came across this wonderful short video by artist Lori McNee today - Winter Outdoor Painting Tips for the Plein Air Painter.  She had me from the get go - striding knee deep across snow!

David Curtis demonstrates "A Light Touch: Landscapes in Oils"

In this video, David Curtis is back to painting in oils and this time the 'light' is all about a lightness of touch which he likes to use when painting in oils.



Notes I made while it was playing focus on:

• he likes to use scrubby strokes at the beginning of landscape paintings
• palette focus on main colours used for his landscape palette
• capitalise on the light and getting the patina of light right
• getting the highlights marked in at the beginning of the painting
• seeing the picture as a whole in terms of shapes of light and shade
• a constant focus on tones and getting the register of light and dark right
• the importance of developing your memory when painting plein air
• the importance of NOT honing in on one area - which you might like a lot - for too lomg

Books and DVDs by David Curtis

You can find a new section about David Curtis in my "resources for artists" website The Best Books about Landscape Painting  

These are my Amazon Associate links to David Curtis's books

United Kingdom

• The Landscape in Watercolour: A Personal View (Atelier)
• Capturing the Moment in Oils
  
• Light and Mood in Watercolour
  
• NEW BOOK published May 2010 Painting with Impact
  

United States of America

• A Personal View - David Curtis -The Landscape in Watercolor
• Artists living in the USA can also buy DVDs (Region1) of this artist.  Here's a link to A Personal View: Landscapes in Watercolour with David Curtis 
• A Light Touch: Successful Painting In Oils 
• Capturing the Moment in Oils
• his new book published September 2010 Painting with Impact

Plein Air Pastel Painting with Richard McKinley

Pastel artist Richard McKinley has a number of blog posts on Pastel Pointers with Richard McKinley about  creating landscapes and plein air painting with pastels.  He's particularly strong at looking at the place where he's painting and techniques for translating this into a pleasing work of art.

Richard McKinley - website

Richard recently created a series of posts with very useful tips.  These are especially helpful for pastel artists working plein air - but anybody working plein air will find value in a lot of what he has to say.

• Plein Air Tips, Part 1 in which he looks at options for creating a stable set up for your palette

Using pastel en plein air has its advantages. The instant gratification of choosing a pastel stick and applying it to a surface is unparalleled. We simply open the pastel palette, analyze the scene, and make a mark—no mixing, no solvents, and no bag full of wet rags to dispose. The disadvantage is that we need an assortment of pastel hues in a range of values to accomplish what the wet painter can do with four tubes of paint.

•  Plein Air Tips, Part 2: Sun Vs. Shade which discusses the issues of working in full sunlight or shade and provides some valuable recommendations for kit which helps with dealing with the sun

The painting surface and pastel palette need to be in the same light. Otherwise, pastel choices from the palette will appear completely different on the painting surface, confusing the mind and eye collaboration.

• Plein Air Tips, Part 3 - which is about how make plein pastel painting more pleasurable
  

Remind yourself while you are painting that the photo can provide detail information later and your task is to represent what the camera cannot: the human perspective. Spend your time analyzing the value relationships and subtle color sensations.

Here's a selection of a few more of his plein air related posts from his blog:

Places for plein air painters

• Places that Inspire: Cape Cod - and the opportunties it presents for plein air artists
  
• Beauty in the Mundane - about deciding what to paint in the landscape
• Painting in the Grand Canyon of Man - about how the choices made when painting urban landscapes are not that different from those made when painting rural areas

Kit for plein air painters

• The Perfect Pastel Plein Air Setup: The Search Continues in which he describes his newly downsized travel kit
• A Consistent Palette: The Plein Air Artist's Friend helps deal with the issues arising from the way colours change in bright light

Techniques and solutions for plein air painters

• The Shutter Speed of Our Eyes - which reflects on how our eyes see things differently to cameras
• The Problem With Green, Part 1 which tackles the nitty gritty issues associated with the use of green
  

A few years ago while I was on a painting trip with legendary pastel plein air artist Glenna Hartmann, the question of how to handle green was posed. After a perfectly timed pause, she quietly responded, “I avoid it at all cost.” The ensuing discussion was very interesting. It seemed that every painter there had an issue with green.

• Pastel Dry Underpainting - about how to tackle an underpainting when working plein air and all you have to hand are your pastels

While subject matter may be important to the concept, the process of painting is really nothing more than shapes, edges, values and colors, arranged in a pleasing design. 

Between Bjørnøy and Roaldsøy - looking west

This is a quick sketch and my first ever effort for the Virtual Paintout which this month is painting Stavanger in Norway. See Stavanger, Norway - March 2010 which contains a number of contributions at this mid-point in the month. I find it intriguing that quite so many different styles can work well with an image from Google Maps!

Between Bjørnøy and Roaldsøy - looking west

coloured pencils on Saunders Waterford

I found the most difficult bit to be navigating my way to a spot which had 'a good view' (which translates as something I liked enough to want to draw).

In the end I went for one of the islands and found a narrow bridge which gave me a view in two directions and a choice of topics. I like the red barn-like buildings and the combination of the red barns and the water seemed to me to be typical of this part of the world.

This is the link to where I was - although not quite the place I got to first time round. I forgot where I'd been or to make a note of the link and had to find it all over again!

Streetview is also a neat way of checking out whether somewhere where you think should present a good prospect for plein air work will deliver the goods in reality. Obviously you can't get everywhere - but there's a fair few places you can go.

It is also absolutely fascinating being able to see different parts of the world. I suspect a fair few people may change painting holiday plans as a result of being able to review locations using Streetview!

TIP: Foliage and Sky Holes

Richard McKinley (Pastel Pointers) writes about When the Light Comes Through the Trees on The Pastel Pointers Blog and references John F. Carlson's theory of how to tackle values in the landscape (see Carlson's Guide to Landscape Painting)

pastel painting by Richard McKinley

(see more on his website)

Having dark, upright trees against a light sky produces one of the most beautiful and difficult to handle situations in the landscape: sky holes. The amount of visible sky holes depends on the density of the foliage, but as an artist friend often said, “You have to give the birds a place to fly in and out.”
When the Light Comes Through the Trees

Richard goes on to provide some very useful commments about the issue of the colour and tonal values of the birdie holes and the foliage surrounding them. This is a recommended read.

Thanks to Richard also for his lovely pastel painting of trees - and sky holes for the birdies!

How to make landscape art

This post will provide an index of links to posts on this blog or elsewhere about the different practical aspects of how to translate landscape into art - in terms of drawings, paintings, prints or photography.

It will be updated with links to the relevant posts as they are posted and/or the index is revised.

CONCEPTUAL

• why paint landscapes
• concepts and landscapes
  
• "first impression, then expression" - the emotional response to a landscape subject

TECHNICAL -COMPOSITION

• the landscape format
• different approaches to composition
• placement of the horizon line
• zones - foreground /middle ground/ background
• simplifying the landscape
• massing and shapes in the landscape
• landscape and value patterns
• aerial perspective
• perspective in the landscape
• landscape and scale
• landscapes through the window
• staffage - the figure in the landscape

TECHNICAL - COLOUR

• landscape colour palettes
• how colours vary according to different locations and latitudes
  
• how colours vary according to different seasons
• the colour of atmospheric effects

HOW TO......

• how to draw/paint a tree
• how to draw/paint water
• how to draw/paint clouds
• how to draw/paint buildings
• how to draw/paint figures in the landscape
• how to paint the landscape in the sky
• how to develop a landscape series
  
• landscapes and mark-making
  
• landscape and line
• landscape and dots
• use photos to create landscape art (and what NOT to do)
  
• how to abstract a landscape

PLEIN AIR SPECIFIC

• plein air kits
• the best plein air easel is...
• choosing a location
• pros and cons of the familiar

MEDIA: OIL PAINTING

• painting landscapes using oils

MEDIA: ACRYLICS

• painting landscapes using acrylics

MEDIA: WATERCOLOUR

• painting landscapes using mixed media

MEDIA: PASTELS

• painting landscapes using pastels

MEDIA: COLOURED PENCILS

• drawing landscapes using coloured pencils

MEDIA: PEN AND INK

• drawing landscapes using pen and ink

MEDIA: MIXED MEDIA

• painting landscapes using mixed media

MEDIA: PRINT-MAKING

• creating prints of landscapes
  

MEDIA: PHOTOGRAPHY

• shooting the landscape

TIPS

• how to eliminate details

LESSONS LEARNED FROM LANDSCAPE TEACHERS

• John Carlsson
• Arthur Dow (notan)
  

HOW YOU CAN PARTICIPATE

Your input is welcomed in relation to:

• suggestions as to what else needs to be considered for inclusion in the list
• comments on the suggested topics

You can also identify a post on your blog which could usefully be referenced in the above index (although please note I'm aiming to keep the standard high in terms of the content that gets referenced)

This post will be updated and revised with links, as they are posted, to

• new threads in The Art in the Landscape ning community
• new posts on the Art of the Landscape
• new posts on the blogs of individuals

Please use this thread to make requests for an update and supply the URL for your linkand I'll review it.

Free e-book of tips for painting a plein air landscape

Artist Daily - the social media website of the art magazine 'American Artist' - has a number of e-books which are free to download.

One of these is 24 Tips to Learn How To Paint a Plein Air Landscape. This forms part of their series on oil painting techniques.

....you’ll find tips on how to get started working en plein air and how to improve your en plein air painting technique.Featured artist Donald Demers emphasizes the importance of learning from each landscape painting, whether it’s a successful one or a disappointment, and members of the Plein-Air Painters of America (PAPA) stress the need to maintain focus, especially when painting chaotic garden scenes.

I've just downloaded it and haven't read it as yet - but will be giving it a review over on Making A Mark reviews in due course. A quick scan of the article suggests that oil painters will find it more interesting but that it contains some tips which apply to plein air painting generally.

You have to register with the site before you can download any of the free art instruction e-books (PDF article downloads), receive the newsletter or participate in the online community.

If you've already downloaded it, feel free to leave your comments on it here