Step by Step Landscape Painting Demo

Oil Painting, Free Art Lesson - Part 2 of 2

Oil Painting Demonstration of "Sand Creek"

Step 6: Continue the Block-In

I began to fill in the lighter tree areas while continuing my efforts to keep the shapes simple. I used a #2 Holbein Killington bristle flat brush in some of those smaller shapes in the trees, and applied the paint a little more thickly.

Step 7: Continue the Block-In

Using the #6 Utrecht bristle flat brush again, I filled in the sky, but didn't try to complete it yet with clouds, etc. You can see now that my initial wash on the canvas has definitely helped my process. If I had been working up to this point on a white canvas, almost the entire bottom portion of the painting would be glaring white (making it more difficult to compare the values and colors of my other shapes). Thankfully, the initial wash ended up being fairly close to the color I wanted for the creek bed.

Step 8: Continue the Block-In

Next, I blocked in a color for the whole creek bed and started to place the areas of water.

Step 9: Refine the Shapes

After all that block-in work, I finally began to refine some shapes by adding details. Since my focal area is just to the right of center in the painting (the bright trees and the reflecting water in the creek bed), I started refining there first. That way I could compare all the other areas in the painting to that area, letting it predominate with the most details. In this and the following refining steps, I began using #2, #4 and #6 Royal Langnickel sable flats. Their softness allows paint to be easily applied on top of wet paint, even if the paint is thick. They are also very useful for softening edges.

Step 10: Refining

In this step, I revisited my initial shadow areas to bring them to more of a finish. I still tried to keep them simple and somewhat stylized rather than smooth them out. This helps add some excitement to those areas.

Step 11: Refining

I realized that the color I had chosen for the creek bed was more intense than I wanted, so I repainted that whole area and then added details there.

Step 12: Refining

Next, I returned to the mountain areas to add details. Throughout all these refining steps, I continued comparing back to my focal area so that it would still be the most dominant.

Step 13: Refining

The last area to complete was the sky which I wanted to break up with a few clouds. There weren't really any in my plein air piece, so I figured out a design that would work for that area. I also decided to give shapes to the clouds that would mirror the shapes of the trees below, which would help unify the background and the foreground. Then I looked over the whole painting to make sure every part was working well, and made adjustments where they were needed. In these last few steps, I repeatedly checked the painting's reflection in a mirror. Seeing the image in reverse helps me find mistakes that I've missed. Often an edge that is too sharp or a distracting brush stroke needs to be softened.

Step 14: Varnish

All that I did for this last step was to sign the painting and varnish it. I can often get a better photo of the painting (with less glare) once it is dry and has been varnished. I included some close-up photos below.

	FREE ART LESSONS
	EGG TEMPERA Portrait	OIL PAINTING Old Masters	OIL PAINTING Sky and Sea
	ACRYLIC LESSONS Wolf	PAINTING LESSONS William Whittaker	FREE ART BOOK Freehand Art