Landscaping Again

With all that is going on lately, I'm still trying out landscapes. It's hard to avoid pretty scenery here in East Tennessee and I would be a fool to not give it a shot...at least. Here's a 16x20 on canvasboard attempt at a landscape of a local scene. We have an aboretum a few miles from home that does botanical research and is open to the public. There are a lot of nice trails and a portion of the place is manicured, like the scene that I painted. This time around I relied on a photograph to hone my skills at depicting foliage and work out a reasonable palette of colors, so I won't struggle when I try to paint on location. Once I'm satisfied that I can do a halfway decent job, I can put more energy into observation than struggling with the process itself.

Based on my reference, you can tell there is some work to do. I found that french ultramarine blue and yellow ochre does pretty well creating a nice natural green that can be tweaked in many different directions in value and temperature. However, I'll need a little more practice in applying the various qualities of colors to a scene. My strokes are not defined enough in some areas, making some of the foliage look like a fog of color. Getting a thicker rigger or smaller round (I think) should help with my brushstrokes in creating leaf textures. Its a start and I look forward to trying more.