Oil Painting 101 by Claudia

I painted a landscape.  I used a photo for reference and took a picture at the end of each painting session.








The first step on a Landscape painting, besides having a plan, is to start with the background.  You also need to know where your shadows will be so you can start blocking out the shapes.

 On this next day, I worked on the distant trees, the distant mountains and started getting the foreground blocked in.  It's a good idea to get a lot of the white of the canvas covered.  That way, you can see how the colors will really look like next to each other and in relation to the whole. 

 Next I painted the foreground but continued to work on the trees.  This is supposed to be a fall scene, so the trees are very colorful and took most of my efforts.  Trees are tricky, you need to try to keep the general shape of the trees by having a pattern of light and dark while still keeping it loose.


Also, the trees closest to the viewer need to be brighter in color in comparison to the distant trees.  For example, you don't want to use the same red for all the trees, you need to use a more muted red for the far away trees.  The same rule applies for shadows, mid tones and highlights. 

Next, I worked on foreground.  I painted the tree trunks, the fences, the house and the trees around the house.  All these details will add structure to the painting.  The house is the focus.  The focus area should have the most contrast and details.  I used the white of the house and the straight edges to give the viewer something different to look at, basically a place to rest from the color overload and fuzzy tree patterns. However, don't make one spot (or the focus) to be the only interesting part.  In this painting, the tree colors will help keep the viewer's eyes moving around.

 At this point, I refined the house details and continued to add color throughout the painting. The yellow tree behind the house has the deepest yellow helping the focus to remain there even you take a break to look at other trees.  While painting, be careful not to lose the focus of the painting by having too much of a good thing.  I loved the orange trees, it was hard to keep myself from adding too many of them. 

Step back away from your painting often to evaluate your work.  I darkened the farthest mountain because it looked too much like sky.  I think it looks better now.  I also worked on more details on the foreground fields.  I still made more changes to the trees, but I found myself making them worse the more I messed with them, so I stopped and I called it finished. 

   There are two ways to know your painting is done.  One way is that your painting takes on a life of it's own and it will tell you that it's just right and there is nothing left to be done.  The second way is that your painting will tell you:  "Please stop? You are just making me worse!".   If you do happen to finish your painting the second way, that's okay, you still learn from the experience and you can do better next time.