Fingal Bay - the finished painting

Fingal Bay - NSW

In my last post I showed how I did the underpainting of this artwork using acrylics, on location. Using acrylics while on location has its own advantages and disadvantages. An advantage is that you can easily carry the painting with you while travelling because it dries quickly and so you can place it anywhere you like. On the other hand, if working in very warm conditions, excessive fast drying can be a disadvantage during the painting process itself.

So back to the studio I decided to finish this painting in oils. You can always work with oils over acrylics but not the other way round. I started from the sky, using cerulean blue and white with a  touch of alizarin crimson and raw sienna to the distant sky. I darkened the sky as I moved forward adding cobalt blue and alizarin to the right hand side corner and white and a touch of viridian to the left hand side corner from where the light is coming.

The distant land on the left was blocked with cerulean blue and highlights with raw sienna and white. The middle ground was blocked with cobalt and alizarin while the closest and mass on the right was blocked with ultramarine blue and alizarin with touch of yellow ochre to gray it. 

For the distant water I used ultramarine and phthalo blue and phthalo green, adding yellow and Australian red gold to the shallow water on the front. The detailes of the tress where painted using ultramarine blue mixed with yellow and a mixture of burnt sienna, viridian and Australian red gold. I added two sailing boats to the distance to cut the horizontal shoreline of Sharks Island in the distance. The wet sand on the fron was painted with yellow ochre mixed with burnt sienna and cerulean blue.

Happy New Year to everyone.

This is one of the many acrylic paintings that I did last month. It shows a view of Ormiston Gorge a very nice place to visit in central Australia. I was there in August 2012 and this particular place is one of my favorites. To the original photo I added the gum tree at the front. I love to paint gum trees especially those having white bark. 

I used a very loose and fast painting technique, bearing in mind that acrylic colours dry too quickly sometimes while still on the brush. I used cooler colours for the background, like alizarin red, cobalt blue, raw sienna with lots of white. Warmer and stronger colours were used for the front, including burnt sienna, vermillion, cad yellow medium and viridian. For the greenish colour of the pool I used olive green (or sap green).

Composition 3 - Oil Painting Landscape

Composition 3 - The Three Sisters

This is a painting I recently finished showing the iconic Three Sisters at the Blue Mountains. This is an oil on canvas board. I used 10oz cotton canvas on MDF board.

I am going to use this painting to go through the basic techniques of landscape painting. 

To start with, most landscape paintings have a background which usually includes the sky. The furthest mountains in this painting are part of the background. 

The midground refers to the closer mountains and the rock formations themselves.
The foreground at the bottom of the painting is the closest to the viewer.

To create the sense of distance and depth one has to use colour and also relationship of different objects to each other, i.e. the closer the subject is to you it looks bigger, more detailed and darker in colour.

Aerial perspective. When you look at a distant object like looking at mountains that are kilometers away, one tends to see them having a bluish colour. This is because there is atmosphere between the mountains and the viewer and this atmosphere is made up of gasses and humidity that scatters light coming from the sun while absorbing most colours leaving only blue to reach your eyes. So in a painting we need to create this effect. In the morning since there are more water droplets in the atmosphere the bluish colour seems to be stronger.

I started the painting with a rough sketch and underpaint using a wash of basic colours. I diluted the paints with odourless mineral spirit for fast drying.The underpainting was done using cobalt blue and titanium white for sky and background mountains, adding more alizarin crimson to the forground mountains and rock formations and dark burnt umber for the forground rocks.

Backround.
As a diluent for the rest of the painting I used a mix of 1:4 linseed oil with odourless mineral spirit.
After the first wash I left the painting to dry overnight. The next day the paint was almost completely dry.
Using a mix of titanium/zinc white I started from below the horizon line up into the sky. The distant sky has to be close to white. Cobalt blue was used for the upper part of the sky, darker at the corners and using a criss-cross brush stroke blended into the white of the distant sky creating a gradient.
The cloud was painted using a purplish shadow from cobalt blue and alizarin red. Using a 8 filbert brush I added the white highlights with a touch of burnt sienna, blending the colour into the shadow in a circular movement. Using a clean dry brush I softened the brush strokes using a diagonal brush stroke up into the right hand corner. The horizontal distant mountain at the horizon was done using a single brush stroke with cobalt blue onto the white underpaint. The lower part within the valley was left as white as possible to give the illusion of mist.
Midground
Using a mix of ultramarine blue + titanium white with a touch of alizarin I created the background mountain on the left hand side. Adding more blue and slightly more alizarin red I did the other mountain on the left hand side just behind the rock formations.
To the same mix I added slightly more ultra blue and more alizarin crimson creating a reddish purple. With this mix I painted the right hand side middle mountain.
The underpaint of the three sisters was painted using a mix of ultramarine blue + white + vermillion.
I started adding the details to the background mountains. The cliffs were painted with a mix of white with a touch of alizarin. I added a touch of very lemon yellow mix with white to the mountain behind the three sisters giving the hint of trees. The cliffs on the right handside mountain where painted with titanium white + alizarin + touch of burnt sienna (not completely mixed but left as marbled).
Using a mix of titanium white + raw sienna I started adding the grass and hint of trees to the right hand side mountain. The highlights were done by adding more white to the raw sienna. Using a filbert brush I added more trees from back to front, enhancing the brush stroke and leaving shadows from teh underpaint in between them. Using a liner brush and a mix of blue/white I added the tree trunks randomly throughout, increasing the size as I come forward.
The rock formations of the tree sisters were painted using a mix of white + alizarin + more burnt sienna partially mixed. I used a flat brush and a small painting knife to create the rock effect.
The trees around the three sisters were painted using a filbert brush loaded with a mix of titanium white + raw sienna + gray (made up of alizarin + ultramarine blue + touch of raw sienna) + very tiny spec of viridian green. Highlights were added randomly using a mix of white with Australian red gold (or if you want Indian yellow).
Foreground
Using a painting knife I sculptured the rock formation at the forground using a very dark mix of burnt umber, Payne's gray + burnt sienna. I partially mized these colours with titanium/zinc white and using the knife strokes in the direction the rocks are positioned. The shadow of the cliff edges was left with Payne's gray and burnt umber. I added a little bit of green colour (ultramarine blue and cadmium yellow medium) to the rock and also a touch of vermillion (red).
The bush was painted with the same mix of Payne's gray, burnt umber and viridian green. Highlights of the bush was painted with cadmium yellow medium, Australian red gold, white mix. I used pallette knife for most of the foreground including tree trunk of bush as it creates a really nice bold effect.

Hope you enjoy and that you found this information usefull.
Happy painting

Understanding Colour

When white light, coming from the sun or another light source, strikes an object it is then reflected back to our eyes by that object. Different surfaces absorb, reflect and mix light differently due to their structures and this is why we see different colours. So in painting, different pigments on the surface of the canvas are able to do the same. There are 3 different properties in colour: ​

1. Hue: or the colour itself eg. Blue, red, yellow

2. Value: or else the darkness or lightness of colour and this is what creates contrasts

3. Intensity or tone: pure colour comes from the tube but it is rarely used as pure and so it has to be mixed. 

 

Hue

​The above picture shows the colour wheel. There are 3 primary colours from which all the other colours can be mixed.....Yellow, red, blue.

Secondary colours are those mixed from two of the primaries eg: blue + yellow = green

Tertiary colours are those mixed from a secondary and a primary eg: orange + yellow

Colours are said to be either warm or cool. Red is warm while blue is cool.

However there are warm blues (eg: ultramarine blue) and cool blues such as cerulean, cobalt and phtalo blue. There are also warm reds such as the cadmiums and cool reds (alizarin red).

The earth colours such as raw sienna, raw umber, burnt sienna and burnt umber are located at the inner part of the wheel towards the orange side. ​

Using cool colours for early morning scenes as well as for winter scenes while warm colours are used for afternoon or summer/Autumn scenes.

Appropriate use of warm and cool colours in a painting will give you depth and perspective, that is using blues for distant objects such as distant mountains and warm colours for foreground objects.

​

​Value

​​The darkness and lightness of colour will give contrast and hence also useful for perspective. White is the lightest colours while black is the darkest...however black is rarely used in a painting as it is too strong (use Payne's grey instead). The addition of white to a colour will create a tint. Always keep an abundant amout of white available to use. Colours are usually darkened with a grey to create a tone. The addition of white or greys will affect the intensity of the colour. Adding black will create shade.​​

Suggestions applicable for oil painting

Always use artist quality oil paints (these contain more pigment and so do not fade when mixing). Also it will be easier to create texture when using knife for painting. You cannot work well with runny colours.

If oil colours are too thick then thin them with gum turpentine or linseed oil, only to a creamy consistency. The more oil you add the more time it takes for the painting to dry. Gum turpentine is usually added to colours used for the underpainting for fast drying.

Add more oil to the top layers of a painting as these has to dry the last., this is known as FAT over LEAN. If upper layers dry before the lower ones then this can cause cracking. Always paint in adequate ventilation as oil colours are toxic even if they do not smell. When starting painting, start from very dark (usually monochrome) underpainting, just indicating the basic shapes and structures and light/dark areas. Always keep in mind that there is no light if there is no dark and so you have to create contrast by putting highlights over darker areas. I will give more details how to use colours when discussing landscape painting.