Creating Stunning Backlight Landscapes Acrylic painting effortless

1. Welcome to the class: One, welcome to a new and exciting acrylic painting class. Today you will be learning how to make this gorgeous backlit landscape. Hi, my name is George, and I've been a professional artist for over ten years. In the last six years, I've fallen in love with teaching. Both online and in person classes with adults and children, I've developed a very interesting way of teaching. That focuses on fun and engaging projects such as this while learning about key concepts in painting. If you have never painted before, then this composition might look intimidating. However, with the proper guidance and encouragement, you will finish it in no time. Not only that, but you will be amazed at your own creation. So let's just jump into the class. 2. Materials : Hello, one. Welcome to another beautiful course. For this course, you will need a canvas. This is 30 by 20 centimeters. You will need a plate to mix your colors. You will need some water and two beautiful brushes, a big flat brush, and a small round brush. Wow, it's quite a bit bigger than small. And you will need some acrylic paint. This is Amsterdam acrylic paint, Titanium white. You will also need some brown, also known as burnt umber. So yellow. You can use lemon yellow. This is Azo yellow medium, but you don't need this specific yellow. This is brilliant blue and some red carmine red. And you're going to also need some paper towels. Just like these ones. Let's put them over here. Before you start the course, you should have one of these, which is a rehearsal board. It's just a canvas that is beautifully put on a wooden surface, and you can wipe it down and try many things on it before it gets too dirty to work on. This is very important because it teaches you how to do things in a way that you don't have to risk the whole painting. It's a very good learning device. And whenever you don't feel comfortable to do a certain technique or put a certain color, just try to do it on this surface. 3. Pink wash : For the first step, you will need some brown. Let's put it right here. Not a lot, and some red. For a beautiful wash. We do this wash, very wet, just grab some water, mix it with the brown. This has many reasons. The wash, the flat brown reddish wash. The first reason is to cut the white because it's too intense, and it can make you paint colors that are not very pleasing. They will be too dark. If we add this red brownish color, we know that we've covered all of the surface and all of the little pores of the canvas. It can be very, very generous with the water and very fast as well. Go from side to side to have a smoother surface. And you can also vary the color if you want, just to have an excuse to use a bit more brown or a bit more red. Okay. And once you do this and you have your whole canvas together. It's very important to do it very fast just so you get the hang of painting quite a bit faster and to get some more loose movements when you paint. So this is also a psychological trick to get your brain a bit adjusted and ready for painting. It's like a warm up set for the painting. And it is mandatory to let it dry after you do this. It's important. It's also a way to practice your patients. Let's clean out the table because we moved a bit too fast. And we've done a bit of a mess, and we don't want this paint to dry on the table. So it's practicing being a bit loose and understanding that acrylic can take a lot of water, and you can do a lot of washes like this to cut the white of the canvas, and it will prevent you from painting way too dark. Okay. Don't forget to add some water to the paint brush and squeeze it out so that you kind of have it moan. Let it completely dry, and then you can start with the next step. 4. Composition and sketch : Okay, now that the painting is dry, you can use also a hair dryer to dry it faster. And let's sketch with the big brush. Let's take some brown. We only did a pink and red wash just because I was kind of bored of doing a brown one. So let's this time, let's add a bit more color to this brown and start doing some diagonals. We are focusing on the composition right now, so we want the main subject to be around here. So we're going to have to do some mountains in the distance. So we're going to have to have some interest over here as well. And adding a small little point like this, you can add a diagonal. Diagonally. And then going from about here. So a bit further than the corner, connect them together. These will be some mountains in the distance. And just to balance out a bit of the composition, you can go from here, slowly do a slope to about here. So it's these corners are you can start to see how much more interesting it looks just with these diagonals. And now we're going to have the main center of interest on this side, so we use the rule of thirds. And before we do the main tree, the main tree of the landscape. We can add some more interesting things in the background over here, some trees and bushes, just to make it easier to create that distance. Okay. And going up, you can also add a bit of a kind of a slope like this. I'm going to draw it, but you don't have to draw it. So the trees are going to add a slope. These are simple sketches. This is a very simple sketch. You're not actually drawing trees. What you are focusing on is the edge, doing a very articulate and very calligraphic edge of the trees. The way you do that, to simplify the idea is that you change the brush and be cognizant of the way you use the tip of the brush and the corner. And go higher, lower. Notice how here there is a bit of a gap. So that's how you do it. And then you scrape these things to make the color look a bit more flat. Doesn't really matter because it's going to be completely gone by the end. Okay? And continuing, notice how here is very flat. So we need to add some texture, and by texture, I mean, outline, and continue. Notice how here, it kind of creates a beautiful slope, a beautiful valley. I shouldn't say value because these are trees. You made a beautiful thing. Now, these ones are two much of the same, so we can make this one a bit higher. It's like a guide, like a round shape, goes like this. Even though this one goes a bit more like that. Let's focus a bit more on the foreground as well, doing kind of the same thing. But this time trying to go in this direction to add some bushes or some things over on this side. Notice how you can be a bit more fast once you understand the concept that all it matters is the edge and continuing until we reach the tree. For the tree, we are going to switch to the small brush and taking some brown, adding some water to it. And rule of thirds. So we have a third over here and another one over here. We divide the canvas into tree. So it should be around here. Now, if you never ever painted trees, you should always have your pinky on the canvas, even though you are touching the paint, it doesn't really matter. If you make a bit of a mess, and you start slowly. And go upwards. You don't have to be super precise and make straight lines. All you have to do is do one branch until you notice that the paint is running out, so you need a bit more. You need to take from the color palette, and then you go higher and higher. Try to add a bit of a wibble wibble wobble a bit of a wobble because that's how nature works and divide it. And we should go outside with the branches. Okay. That's the first branch of the tree, and we're going to do another one right next to it. This is going to be like a collection of trees right on this side. You don't have to be perfect with them because you're going to paint them a few more times. Well, at least once by the end of the course. You just need a bit of an idea where they sit. And. And this is just to practice the hand movements and what you're going to do when you go and do the actual branches in the end. Notice how I'm holding the brush this way. It's much easier to go with the brush in the direction to hold the brush in the direction that you are going, because if I do this, the bristles will go inside and the branch will become very thick. Okay. And going on and making a few more they're not necessary, like just these three stumps would be enough. And now let's actually do a bit of a different take. We're not going to color in, so color in the whole tree because it's easier to understand the concept and make the sketch if you do like an outline. And the outline is it starts about here, and it's very cligraphic. And then it's not an entire outline. We are just adding some patches, and your brain will create the entire te. And notice how this is very straight. So we need to add a few more distance over here, and let's exaggerate now the line that we have it more interesting, more evident, and over here because this one is very beautiful. And now notice how this is interrupted and still it gets the idea across. And it's fun to just move around the subject and move around the tree just so your brain doesn't go very analytical. To get a bit technical about the subject, you have two types of shapes. You have an indent and a mountain. But this is way too analytical. You just have to think about it like you go outside, inside, outside, And outside, notice how this has created a bit more shape this way. So you don't want to create just a circle. You need very, not abstract, but very varied, very interesting edges, and you create those edges by having little pockets that go inside the shape like this. See or go down and create this very interesting dynamic outline. I've connected it all, but that doesn't really make a huge difference. And you can be a bit more loose. If you want, you can just go like this and do a sketch that way. And that's all you need for this beautiful sketch. 5. Blue sky overlaping: This next step, let's clean out the brushes. We need clean brushes, especially the big one. So dip into the water. Never hold brushes that have a wooden handle in water because they're going to become bad. The paint and the wood is going to get damaged. If you have plastic handles, you can leave them in the water as much as you want. Let's take some white. We're going to focus on the sky. And by white, I mean blue. That's a lot of blue. For the small amount of sky that we have. And let's add a bit of white over here. That's a better amount of white. And let's take the big brush and a tiny bit of water. Actually, that's too much water, so let's take it off on a napkin. Take some blue, never mix in the same spot that you put all the colors. So never go with the white and the blue. Always test it out, see if you like the color. Like, in this case, this blue and this white needs a bit more white. We need a very light sky. Okay. And we are mixing and getting a beautiful color. If your blue is not like this brilliant blue in case you used ultramarine blue, you can add a bit more white and a tiny amount of yellow to make it more cerulan. I think that's the name of this color. I like to color baby blue. And then you start to add it very flat onto the sky area. This is going to be very, very easy because it doesn't need to be You already have the drawing, the sketch. All you have to do is make sure that the color is opaque enough to get rid of that pink, but not entirely. Notice how It can look very beautiful if you have it in the background. You can go over the tree. Don't worry too much about that. Just get over and over the mountains a little bit, just because you want the sky to be in the background. So the edges that are going to be created because you went over the mountains are going to be entirely different. Then if you didn't go like that, because the paint will sit, like if you just go until here, and then you go with the mountain, they're just going to touch instead of overlap. So we tend to think of paint as something that is not really tree dimensional, but it is. And it really matters which color goes over and overlaps the other color. Okay. And once you've done this whole area with the flat color, you need to make a bit of a lighter color just to add it over on this area where the mountains go with each other. This will give you a bit more, let's say, atmospheric perspective. It's a fancy word for things in the background tend to have a hazy look. Okay? And that's all for the sky. You don't need to let it dry. What you're going to do now is paint after this step. You are going to paint the mountains. 6. Creating depth in the Mountains : Okay. For the first mountain, you don't need to clean the brush, just take some blue and a touch of red. This will become a very, very intense Turquoise. Well, it's not turquoise. It's purple blue, but we need to add a bit of brown into it. And notice that if you clean the brush, you can just add some white into it just so you make this color a bit more flat, a bit more actually, let's add more white into it. So we make it even more hazy. So we give that atmospheric perspective that the background and y, the background of the landscape should have. So now, just a tiny amount of water, just to make it run a bit better. And we're going to do some mountains. Don't be very exact. They don't need to be straight lines. You can do a bit of a curve. And then let's paint the whole of the triangle going this way. Don't worry about the sketch. You already know if you did it once, you already know how to do the things that you need to do. For the next side of the mountain, we're going to add some brown, and by brown, I mean blue and some brown. I was thinking in advance. Now, this is interesting because we are now going a bit more towards turquoise. So this is a different color. It's a bit more dark, as you can see, and it will create a different effect. Going over the sky and three. Don't worry about the three. You need to create quite a bit of color. Don't worry if you cannot precisely match what you've done. Notice how mine is a bit darker still than the first layer. That's fine. You don't need to be so exact with the colors. You can have them be a bit more imprecise. That creates color variety, and color variety is very important. Notice how as I go down, I go into the trees, just a little bit. And I think we should make this mountain a bit end up over here. Okay. And so that the composition is a bit better balanced. And because this tree will be back lit, the darkness of the mountains, the mountain, I should say, because it will only be here, will contrast very well with the edges of the tree. If you want, you can also add some brown at the bottom of the mountain and mix it with the blue, just to make it a bit more interesting. And focus in on the edge just a little bit so that you have a better edge of the painting. That's all for the mountains for now, let's go into the next step. 7. Trees and what you’ve learned so far: Next step, you don't need to let the painting dry. All you need to do is clean up this brush, not extremely thoroughly, but notice how there is a bit of a area here that you can paint, and that's exactly what you're going to do is add some yellow. That's quite a bit of yellow. And with this yellow, let me see if you can see the color, you can. Let's add it to the middle. Notice how it's already becoming a beautiful green. Let's actually extend that to become a bit more of a green, and let's add some brown into it just so we make it a bit more. Okay. And after you do this, take some water and go over this patch on a diagonal, take a bit more water and go over Okay. Just you don't need these textures, but they are nice to be created. This is only possible because the paint is a bit watered down, and you can add multiple layers by taking a bit more color and adding a bit more over the diluted paint. Okay. Let's focus on the edges. Notice out here, I left a bit of a space for the darker bushes and take some blue, mix it over and some darker brown to make it a bit darker. And from the tree, let's start to add this darker version of this color. And now it's time to do like you did in the sketch and focus in on the edges and the height of these beautiful bushes. Let's add a bit more brown. I've added a bit more brown because the color was too wet, so it didn't really it was mixing too much with the light green. So I added. This is not really the shadow of the tree, so we can accentuate that by making some darker versions over here. So it doesn't seem like it's such a shadow we a thing. Let's add and finish this, even though there is a bit of a brown orange red color. I'm trying to I'm trying to take a hair off the canvas. Even though there is a bit of this brown still showing in the grass, that's fine. We're still going to add more colors to the whole thing. And because we have this green, We have the chance to make a bit more color by adding blue, yellow and brown, and a bit more yellow, to make a bit more color in order to make this beautiful line of trees. It doesn't matter if you pick up some of the blue of the mountains. That's fine. So again, try to focus in on the edge. Notice how because these trees are in the distance, they have smaller dots. So the edge is a bit more fragmented, let's say, and they have smaller things, and you can also have detached little dots because maybe some parts of the trees are floating. And let's create slowly, and at the bottom, you can just go into the green a bit. You don't have to make a line. You can lose that edge by just going a bit faster over it with some dabs. It's dabbing on them haters and going and adding. You can also do something else, which is take some water and just do the fill in first. You don't have to be perfect, and it doesn't have to cover all the brown. Just cover it. Like that, and then take some more and continue to add this green over the blue. It's important to go over the blue of the mountain, the darkness of the mountain. Once you've done all of these sections, you need to take a little bit of a break Oh, I'm liking this. I like this quite a bit. Maybe we will recreate it around here in the next steps. I like the fact that this is a bit more white at the bottom, the mountain, and it creates this interesting effect. That's nice. It's a bit of an easy way to just add a bit of complexity. So the idea that I was putting out right now is that after you've done this, you need to take a break and look where is the pattern repeating. Like right over here, we need to make this a bit higher. And also over here in this area, make it a bit higher. And right over here. Okay. And try to avoid 90 degree angles because those will take too much attention. Now, I'm noticing there is a bit of Canvas showing too white. So let's cut that down. And that's all you need for this beautiful step. Let's go over what you've learned because it's quite important. I'm told that that's the way people learn. You do something, and then you understand what you did. I don't know if it's always the case, but in this case, first of all, you did a sketch. You did a wash and then a sketch to understand and get familiarized with the tools and also the composition and understand what you are going to do in the end. And then you did a beautiful wash of, well, not wash, but flat color of blue, light blue. And then you've added some atmospheric perspective by adding some white lighter color at the bottom. You went over the mountains because that's an important concept in painting where you need to understand that the way the paint overlaps is important as well. Then you did these beautiful mountains. You did one that is a bit more light in the background, so you create that atmospheric perspective once again. Things in the background tend to be a bit more milky, a bit more bluish, milky colored, especially if it's very, very, very far. And then for the next one, you've added a bit more yellow and brown to it to make it a tiny bit darker, but still blue, so we create that distance. You understood this idea of diagonals and how to create a very interesting composition by focusing and dividing the canvas into three parts, the part where we have the main subject, and then the part where we have another subject or point of interest. We have two points of interest. And then you also understood a bit about how to do washes and how to be a bit more painterly by adding a bit more water to the paint so that it creates these interesting textures. And you've added some bushes in the foreground. So you've created some separation in between the background and the foreground that way. And also you added some trees that further that distance and that effect. In the next step, you will learn more things about painting. 8. Brighter colors: For this beautiful next step, you don't need to let the painting dry. All you need to do is clean up the brush. Not very thoroughly, just a little bit, a few squishes here and there, squishy, squashy. And we need to add some white to the color palette. Closer to the yellow, because you are going to make a beautiful yellowish color for the grass. You need a big flat brush at first. We can mix it over the green. If you don't have that green over there or it's dry, you can take some blue, add it over some brown, add it over and make a very light green. Now, take a bit of white and mix it in over this. Let's take a bit more yellow to make it more Nice and beautiful, more light. We are adding lightness both with yellow and white. And this is a very nice and interesting green, very light green. You're going to use this to create a bit more separation in between the layer of trees over here and the layer of bushes over here. So let's do this. Notice that there is a bit of water into this color just so it's more transparent, and To create a bit more texture, try to use the corner and the side of the brush and rotate it as you paint as you dab. You can also add some lines if you want, like this. Try to concentrate the textures. Let's cut this so it doesn't seem like it's the shadow of the tree. Okay? Try to concentrate the most texture just around the tree and around its shadow because now we have a bit of a shadow over here. So try to concentrate more texture. The way you create texture is by actually leaving, like noticed here, it's the most amount of texture. We should take it out. So trying to make this connected areas, that's how you create more texture because you're not actually adding texture, you're implying the idea of texture by dabbing. Okay. And let's go over on this side and add some more separation at the bottom of these. Once you've done this, beautiful green, you can add a bit more to the color. And just a touch. Notice how it's just the corner of the brush. Just a touch of yellow. And let's add over top of this first color a bit more texture. So this is another way to create texture by adding another color. And this one, we're just going to create it and add it just close to the tree and underneath its shadow. Okay. Just nab. And we can go a bit in between these brushes. Perfect. This is too straight, so let's fix it a bit. Let's add some lines in the foreground, just going with the brush like this so we can clean it up and over here, Perfect. That's all you need to do for this step. In the next step, you will be focusing on making the actual tree. If your painting is dry, if not, we're going to use some blue to make these kind of lights. 9. Microcontrast secret: Okay, so it turns out that my mountains are not yet dry. Here is another beautiful concept to learn about, which is the fact that if you have analogous colors, analogous colors are just colors that are very close. Like, for instance, this light green and even though this is quite yellow, it seems green because you've added it over a green, a darker green. So it's the same idea that you are going to use over here. Let's grab some blue and mix it together. It's almost entirely blue. But the idea here, if you have ultramarine blue, you can add a bit more white to create. Let's just test it out. We are going to test it out over here. So we're going to see how it looks. Notice how it's way to blue. So we need a bit more white and a tiny bit of red. So that's how you test out colors and you make the right decisions. Notice how now it's very close to the color that's over here. In fact, if we add a bit more water, it's not going to look amazing at first until it dries because it's going to look way too out of place. But when it dries, because it has so much water, it will look Amazing. So let's try to add in between these trees, not everywhere. Notice how it's not everywhere. It's just around some of them. So we want to add some of this light and create it. You can end the shapes with a bit of a line that goes a bit around the tree. But not everywhere. Try to use this color sparingly. And only at the intersection between the blue and the beautiful trees, the green of the trees, you can add this because this is a very transparent color, so when it dries, it will become less visible. So if it has green underneath, it will not look as great. Okay. And another trick that you can use is go with your finger and smudge some of the areas. In case you cannot smudge them, add a bit more color like this. And then smudge. Smudge smug. Smudge smug. Just go up with the smudges. Just up. Don't go to the sides. Just up and away. Let's add a bit more because the smudges kind of make it look very nice. Okay. Just go up with the smudges. Okay. Perfect. You can also add some lines over the mountains and some dots just to clean up the brush and add a bit more variety to the mountain, so it's not so flat. And a bit of a smudge with the brush over here. And that's all you need to do for this beautiful step. You need to use the hair dryer to dry completely the whole painting, and then we're going to make the beautiful tree. 10. Pet interruption: This beautiful step, you will focus on making the beautiful, wonderful branches. Let's take some brown. And this time, just a tiny bit of water. And just like you practiced in the sketch, you go with the bristles, not against the bristles, of the brushes, of the brush to be more exact. And we start right over here, and we go up. We add a bit of that wiggle, not too much. And we need to get outside of the painting. It's quite important. Notice how the branch goes on a curve over here, and then it ends into a curve going the opposite way towards the right side. Don't worry if you added or made the branch a bit too thick. Now let's go and add another branch that goes from this other one and another beautiful tree. Next to this one. T. And going up and to the right, maybe not so thick. The dog is a bit loud. She's playing with a toy. So excuse the sounds. So let's divide this over here. I need to take her toy. Okay. Now the dog is calm. I gave her a beautiful treat as well. Let's give her another beautiful piece of bread. So she's a bit more interrupted. She doesn't interrupt our beautiful time together. And let's branch out a bit more from here, and from here, and from this side, Okay. And let's decide if we need to make another tree or we leave it at two trees just like this. I'm counting two trees, two, three, four. And now going outside and dividing these branches a bit more. Okay? You don't need to focus too much on the branches because you're going to paint them a bit more afterwards. You just need an overall idea of where the brushes are. And in the next step, you will be making the crown of the tree. 11. Backlight first: Okay, for the next beautiful step, you'll need some water, some yellow, quite a bit of yellow. You will be making the highlights of the tree because it's important to put the highlights behind because the light is behind. So we want to add that overlapping. We're going to go into the tree as well, so we create a more interesting wrap around light. You will see. It's a fancy word. It doesn't mean much, but it's nice to use fancy concepts. Once you do it, you will be able to see exactly how easy it is. So let's make this beautiful yellow light green. And let's add some white into it to make it even more light. You will start to see that this color is super light compared to the background of the mountains and the trees. And just exactly as you did in the sketch. Although this time it has a lot more paint, so it's a thicker, so you can't do small little lines, even though you might need to, depending on your brush, this will be a lot easier or harder. So let's start. Remember, we have these shapes. In these shapes. So one is a valley and one is a mountain or however you want to call it. But these are very, very precise. We need to also make them smaller and see how this one right over here is smaller, and then we make this one bigger. And then you continue as if you are writing. And remember not to go everywhere. And even if you feel like you have done a mistake. Like, for instance, this one is way too flat. You can always go a bit more outside. To the inside, you cannot really go because that's going to still show up. Okay? And continuing over here, it's very important to change the space where you paint and the area in which you paint so that your brain doesn't have time to make very analytical painting strokes. Or painting marks. Notice how if I jump over here, then it's going to be way more different, and it's going to be whips. That's fine. And it's going to be a lot more interesting for our mind to just go and add these small little colorful dots and lines in other places. And you don't need to really do the whole outline. Just a tiny bit around it, can even have small little holes, especially right against the branches. It's very nice to have them around the branches. No over them, but it doesn't matter because you're going to paint the branches once more. Okay. And let's try to connect this one. Now let's take a little bit of a breather and see that this is a very homogenous, let's say, or a very regular shape. It's like a big u. So let's add a bit more color like this, so we we branch it out this way. And also, I would like to branch it out this way. Notice how now it's more like this, and it can have a bit more maybe over here. Just a tiny bit. Perfect. I know it doesn't seem like a tree right now, but it will quite soon in the next step. 12. Green depth: Now with the big brush, let's take just a tiny bit of water. Maybe not that much. Let's take it out a bit. The brush is clean. Let's take some blue, some brown, and some of this green to create a beautiful, vibrant green. Quite a bit of it. Notice how this will be much more different than the color of the trees in the background, these trees. Now let's focus in on going and doing the big shapes. Even if the highlights that you've just put in are not completely dry, and you pick up some of the yellow, that's fine. And let's create a bit more over on this side and maybe leave a little bit of a hole over here so that it looks much nicer. Okay. And let's go over. You can go over the branches. You're still going to be able to kind of see them. So that's fine. Oh, whips. I went over the little yellow bits. That we've created over here. I'm going to add them back. You can add them as well if you want, or if you actually went over. This is the step of mistakes. I've even put some white on the handle of the small brush. Oh, my God. Okay. And going back and adding this color, right in between the colors, filling in the space, and making it look much nicer. Of course, the tree is not finished. This was just a preliminary sketch, let's say. And once you filled it in, we can go back to the small brush. Clean it, get some brown, if we have some, we still have and start adding the branches over this color. Okay. Add them once again. If they are still visible, that's good. You can still add the branches over, and they will look very, very nice. Be careful not to take too much water because it might happen exactly what happened to me, which is that I kind of ruined this area of the painting, but that's perfectly fine. Doing mistakes is good. Okay. And now we actually need some vanishing branches. Like, notice how all the branches are now outside of the tree. And it's like the tree is just behind the foliage is just behind the tree. So that's not what we want. What we want is to create a bit of depth and we create that by going over with some of that green that you've created earlier to make it seem like these branches go backwards, and there is a lot more foliage. You can also dab to create some texture. Okay. They don't need to be so visible, an idea of branches, okay? And now, to finish off these branches, we go over with the brown, not with a lot of water, with the brown, once again, and we go a bit over so we can make some more complexity. And let's make this tree a bit more interesting. Okay. And in the next step, you will go and finish the highlights even better. You're going to see how we do that. 13. Shape and size : Go a little bit over what you've learned about texture and how to create colors and how they overlap. It's very important to understand the overlapping of colors. We tend to think about colors as being just flat. But it matters what kind of edge we create from that overlapping. So that we give this impression that the light comes from the back. We've put the highlights around the tree in the background, basically, and now we've put the green over it, and we did the same with the branches. We've put the branches, and then we added some green over, so we give this impression that the tree has foliage over the branches as well. Now, going and adding some more of this light color, if you don't have it, you can recreate it. Even if it's not the same, if it's almost the same, that's fine. And now we're going to start to dance a bit more. Notice how we are dancing with the and also dabbing to add a bit of this color on the edge starting on the edge. Then slowly, you can go inside of the tree. To create these kind of pockets of light, the idea that the light kind of goes in to the tree a bit. Try to keep those highlights that you've originally created intact. So you don't need to go over them. All you need to do is create a bit more around them and just outside the shape, can even go as far as to add some small dots to create some texture, especially in darker areas just like this, to give the impression that this is a broken shape. It's not just a full shape. You achieve that by first not going all around the shape. And the second way is by dabbing and making little textures and marks all around, well, not everywhere, but in some places. Okay. And over here, notice how everywhere where you have, and we have, and the painting has some round shapes like this. We can break that down by adding another small divot or however you want to call it, a small mark, changing that shape to be more organic, even though it's quite illustrative and painterly, that is fine. It's actually good. And the same thing happens because we've used these shapes which are very curved and round. Let's just add some small dots right where they meet the sky and the background to add a bit of complexity to them. And you can go inside the shape to add some interesting diversity of shape and color over there. Okay. And going a bit more inside over here, maybe we connect this side. Like that. We can also Just smudge some of the color. Let's add a bit more white to the color and start to add some of this thicker color, just in some areas, in a few areas, just as dots, especially where you have round shapes. It's very important to get rid of some of those construction lines that you've created in the painting. The sketch basically. Okay. And once you do that, you need to add some of this green into the color so that we can create some light textures next to the trees over here so that we make the foreground a bit more interesting and seem like it's from the cinematic universe, from the same painting. We add this highlight around the tree and around the whole scenario. And that's not all. We still have to take this color and now mix it with this green, and this will be kind of the last step. 14. Finishing touches : Going into the last step, you need to add some of this yellow highlight into a darker green. If you don't have it, let's remix it with some blue, some yellow, and some brown. And we need it somewhere in the middle so that it's a bit of a highlight, but not so much, so it doesn't really contrast that much with the actual tree. And with this color, we're going to first start to add on the sides. This is just called the middle tone, and it softens the whole tree, and it makes it more complex. It adds a bit of three dimensionality to the tree. Okay. And once you've done that, and you've added some of this, and you feel happy with the texture on the tree, just a few. Not a lot of. You don't need to spend too much time. You can also go over the highlights and to soften some of them. Okay. And let's create some highlights for the background trees. But these ones need to be very delicate. Notice how again, we are not making an outline. It's just an idea of an outline. We are going around the shape, and you are creating these broken lines. Because nature is not formed by lines. It is very organic and broken. But in that broken organic state, we can find beauty. That is what we try to capture in our paintings. Going around, maybe this is too much. Se, now, my brain wants to create beautiful lines, symmetry and roundness and all those kinds of things. So let's get rid of that logical part of our brain and move somewhere in this space. So we move more around the shape so that it's easier to create to not think of the line. We don't even give ourselves the opportunity to be able to make a line, so we don't start from here and finish here, we just jump around. Once we feel like the highlights are good enough, we stop and we finish the beautiful painting. You can also add some of these highlights onto the actual trees, just like this. Maybe there are some trees in the foreground in between the two layers. And as an optional step, you can go back to the highlight and start to add a few more of these dabs of very intense highlight and some lines right next to the tree. And you can also add some yellow to this color to add some more interesting texture around the tree, and you can also add it right near the edge to create a bit of texture and separation in between the foreground and the background. You can also try to smooth it out with your fingers so that it doesn't take so much attention. Now, let's add just a few more, just to make this bush a bit more interesting. Let's add some beautiful highlights. And some of them right next to here. And to clean up the brush, let's go at the bottom of the canvas and maybe over here to smudge this color in these places. Okay. And that's it. This is the painting. Look at how beautiful and what you've been able to achieve in this course. You've learned so many things about colors, about atmospheric perspective, about textures, about how to make trees, how to think about texture, transparency, and light and dark, and all of that without being overwhelmed by information. Thank you for watching. And if you enjoy this course, please leave a review. It will help others know that this course is for them as well. See you in the next one.