Your first painting assignment is the beach scene called The Corner. The reference photo is attached.

There are a few important points about this scene:

Strong light/dark contrast
Balance between organic shapes and man-made shapes
Water reflections
Strong lines - diagonal and horizontal

I want to paint this scene in a loose fashion. I will also adapt the scene a bit where necessary. Add a few rocks here and there, move the figures and so on. You can do this in a landscape where your vision must be given full sway. Leave out what is not required and add what will help your vision for the painting.

I painted this scene quickly which really does help with the loose approach. It took about forty minutes. I looked it over the next day and made a few minor tweaks here or there, mainly to add a touch more color to the figures. TIP: set a timer to encourage working quicker. About forty minutes to an hour.

Important Points:
When painting loose
Focus on the shapes. Abstract shapes of light and dark
Abstract shapes of color
Abstract shapes of brushstrokes, edges and lines
Not details
Avoid smoothing out your brushstrokes.
Balance warm and cool color

Avoid getting bogged down in any one area. For example sweating over the water details. Move on quickly to another part of the painting. Keep things fresh and spontaneous rather than laboring any one part.

DEMO 2: FARM MEADOW

In this bright and sunny painting I am continuing to focus on simplification of a scene. There are more topics to look at too. There is the contrast between warm and cool color that plays a major part in this painting. Look out for that in your painting exercise.

Also keep an eye on aerial perspective from the foreground to the hill in the distance. There is a handy cheat-sheet on aerial perspective for you to download.

Another aspect is how to add interest within shapes. You want to avoid flat shapes as they may look a bit boring. So add smaller shapes within the large shape. Slight variations of brushwork, paint thickness and a few darks or lights to add interest. But not too many contrasting elements - we do not want distraction either. Plus keep the values more or less consistent. The hill for example, has interesting marks. But overall its value remains the same more or less - low saturated color and cool compared to the foreground saturated color.

Is this easy? No, but as you progress through upcoming lessons you will get the trend of what is important. Then is is all about practice. I promise that these foundation steps do get easier!

Happy painting

Amy Peterman

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