Transcripts
1. Introduction: Hi, everybody. My name is Olivia and I'm an artist here in San Jose, California. Welcome to my painting class, where I'm going to be teaching you how to paint a loose acrylic landscape using a reference photo. I'm going to walk you through everything that you need step-by-step. We're going to go through materials and some fun exercises with color mixing and brush techniques and also dimension and form. I will also break down how to block in shapes before painting, and then I'll show you how to sketch this painting. Then finally, we'll paint this loose landscape step-by-step. This class is great for all levels, so beginners and beyond are welcome to try this. I hope you're excited and let's begin today's painting.
2. Materials: This is everything that you will need. An artist's tape, which I tape at the edges, a bowl for water, and some rag. I also use Gesso primer to prime the canvas before painting and then I went for Acrylic Strathmore paper. I cut mine to a six by eight inch, a pencil for just like sketching and making marks and stuff and then these are all the paints that I use including black and white. For the brushes, I went with these five brushes so two flat brushes and two full board brushes and one along thin brush. I use a glass palette which also comes with a little scraper which is very convenient to use. I get a lot of questions asking about what kind of palette I use, I've again linked it below. This is our reference for today. This is a picture that's taken by me. It's printed on a regular size paper, but the actual size is close to a six by eight inch which is what we're using today.
3. Color Study: I wanted to touch bases on color in this lesson, and show you all the colors that you can get and the different dark tones, mid tones, and highlights by simply using white and black with your original paint color. For today's class project, I will be using these six paint colors along with black and white. For the first half of the study, I'm going to show you the colors you can get by simply mixing in black and white. Let's begin with the plain color right off the tube in the first column, and then I will mix in some white with it in the second column. Lastly, I will mix in some little bit of black to that. Of course, you can increase or decrease the value of it by adding less or more black and white, so you can get different shades and different tones and [inaudible] to it by just increasing your intensity of black or increasing intensity of white if you want to make it fully light. Already you can see the difference in color drastically by simply adding white. For example from a raw sienna, you can get this beautiful light beige color, and then you can only imagine the various gradients that you can get in between that. Like adding white to burnt sienna can actually give you a blush pink color that is so beautiful to work with us. I hope you can see that by only adding your basic white and black opens up so much possibilities of new color, which does not limit your color palette, but only improves it. In this bottom half, I wanted to show you what you can get by mixing all these colors with one another. For example, you are mixing in yellow and lights up green, which gives us this mustard color, which again works wonder in landscapes. Here I'm adding some green to it and then burnt sienna, which gives us this beautiful range of brown's and earthy tones. I would highly recommend you to play with your paints and experiment with some color studies to see the different values you can get. Make little notes of your favorite combinations and use that in your future paintings. It's really quite fun and really therapeutic to do and you'll be surprised on how many colors that you can actually form with only your basics and a limited color palette. I wanted to show you how these colors have been applied in today's project. As you can see, most of these colors, if not all, have been used in some way or form. But yeah, it's super interesting to see how this can be done prior to painting to help you out with just trying to get the right colors as close as you can.
4. Brushwork: Now let's dive right into some brushwork. I'm going to walk you through the different strokes and marks that you can make from the brushes that I have used in today's class project. That way you can see how these brush marks have been applied in today's landscape. Let's first begin with the flat brush. This one is super basic and clean. I use this one for the sky and you can get simple flat washes with this one, but extremely thin lines if you use the tip of it as well. Only the smaller flat brush works just the same and I use this for a simple flat washes for my landscape, especially when I block off colors in the first step. Like I mentioned, these next two brushes are my most used and amongst my favorite to paint landscapes. They are very versatile and are great for that loose style of landscape paintings which we love. You can get really great, clean like flat strokes with this. I love painting this when I have painting like huge mountains or into block and shapes. I love using this brush to block in the initial stages. This brush is also great for leaving paint on top of one another as well. If you change the direction of the brush and hold it vertically, you can get arch like shapes that can be used for bushes, trees, and loose objects. Because of the brushes arch like shape, it is great for bushes and hence really great for landscapes. Using the side of the brush or its tip can also be very useful to paint faraway trees or houses, etc. Overall it's just really great for detailing. The smaller size [inaudible] brush is great for smaller bushes and objects far away. I use this long, thin brush in every single painting, which I mostly bring up at the end for detailing. Whether I'm painting floors or landscapes, I always bring this out at the end. This brush really add some visual interest, but just little tiny marks. Today's painting, I use this brush for the grass. I gave it some highlights and just little tiny marks far away. This can really also signify and give impressions of little objects like far away, so maybe even houses or animals. I even actually sign my art with this brush. If you are wondering how I sign them, it's always with this brush at the very end.
5. Dimension & Form: In this lesson, I'm going to go over dimension and form. A form is a three-dimensional figure as opposed to a shape being flat. How would you add a font to an object? In painting, you can do that by adding color. In this example here we have dark tones, mid tones, light tones, and highlights. This is exactly what you need to turn a flat object and give it some dimension and form. I'm going to show you how. I'll be using red, black, and white to demonstrate this. First I'm going to block in the shape with just plain red so that we can have a base to start from. This right here is an example of a flat 2D object which we will now turn into a three-dimensional shape. Now, I'm going to start adding in my mid-tones. I'm going to add some black and whites to the red to create that. To get my dark tones, I'm going to add some more black and fill in that edge. Now we're going to take these two colors and blend them in between. You can already see how this is forming a shape. Now let's add in some light tones by mixing in some white. Notice how I'm painting in the direction of the ball. I'm not just painting this up and down. Since this is a round shape, you want to paint in that curve. I'm just going to go back and forth in between my dark tones, mid tones, and light tones until I'm satisfied and I feel that this looks good. I am just giving it a rough background so that it doesn't feel like this is just floating around. Then for the highlight, I'm going to take a lot more white and a tiny dab of red. A quick recap, dark tones are achieved by mixing your original color with some black, and then the more white you mix in, you will get a gradient. You can see how you can move from a dark tone to a mid tone to light tone and then your highlights.
6. How To Block In Shapes: First step, before we begin painting, is to block off shapes which will help us in the sketch phase. Now various people do this in different ways but the way I like blocking off shapes is by sectioning them off based on obvious color. Now the reason I say obvious color is because I don't want you to get caught up in the nitty-gritty of different shades and tens of color, just look up the overall base color and if it seems like a very distinguish individual color then block that off. Let's do this together so you can understand what I'm talking about. I'm going to use a color pencil so you can see better. For shape, let's block the sky. This one is simple and obvious. You see the light blue. The next one is this light green in the back and then the dark green next to it can be sectioned off as number 3. I'm also going to number the users so that it's more clear. You can group this next one as a whole or section them off as light and dark green like I did but that's totally up to you. Number 6, let's talk of this grass section and then the black pavement you see below it as another. I'm going to block off the entire road as one and then I'll just separate and sketch the lines out when I'm painting. All right. I hope you are seeing where we're going with this. Now, when you start to sketch phase, use this to help you sketch out your painting and block off the shapes in your sketch which will then help you to paint your base layers.
7. Sketching Landscape: The size that I have printed out is a six by eight inch, which is also what I will be working with for today's project. This reference pic is my own, and it's taken by me. They are California roads, if you're interested to know, and I have left this reference picture in the description below. So feel free to use that. It's in the Project and Resources tab. In fact, I would highly suggest you do open up the pig on a separate tab on the side while I'm painting so that you can get a more close up of the reference pic. Once again, use the reference docking of the shapes we went over, and apply those shapes to help you sketch this out. Now, since this pic is almost the exact same size, it will be easier to transfer to our sketch. Here I'm making little marks to help me understand where to begin the mountain. The point where the mountains meet is a little more to the right, but very close to the center as you can see here. So make a little note of that when you begin. Using the help of these marks, block off these shapes and section them out purely based on color. You do not need to go detailed, but just give your landscape enough shapes so that when you begin your base color, which will be the next step, it will be easy for you to just leave the color on. But yes, I would highly recommend you to pay close attention to the reference pictures. Again, pull it up on the side or if you can print it out, that will be even much better. In fact, that's advisable and recommended, and so you print that out, it'll be the exact same size if you're working on a six by eight. That way you can literally draw lines and you can make your own little notes, and that will help you to sketch this out even more. But like I said, use the example I showed you previously on how to block off shapes to help you guide the sketch. All the sections that I blocked off using the orange pencil is what you're basically drawing out. With the help of that, and then these little marks that I'm making on the side, that will also really help you understand how much space you need to leave above and below, and it really does add a nice little grid almost. Print out your own sheet, and make your own marks to the side to help you sketch this out. Here I'm just making mental notes on where the trees are going to go. This will be painted over, but it's just for me to visualize this a little bit. If you are struggling with the sketch phase, definitely pause on this lesson and try and copy the sketch I make here as close as possible before you begin painting.
8. Painting Process 1 - Blocking In: Keeping the color study in mind from the previous lesson, use that to help you paint this. If you haven't gone over that lesson, pause this, finish that quick lesson and then come back to this one. To start with the sky, nice and easy, all you need is blue and white. The names of every color that I will be using is listed in the projects and resources tab below. I want the sky to be pretty light, which means lots of white and only the tiniest bit of blue. Use any big brush that you have. I'm using a filbert brush. You can even use a simple flat brush to paint this. The picture here that we have is a cloudy day. I'm going to add the slightest dab of black just to make this a grayish cooler tone. Here, I'm testing the color and it looks perfect. Big, bold strokes. Feel free to change up the direction of the brush to add more interest. I'm going to add a little extra white to the top corner just to give some impression of clouds. Now let's move on to painting the base colors for the dark mountains here, I'm using olive green and a little black to start with the left mountain that we see. Use any medium-size flat brush you have and just cover that entire triangle shape. A simple flat brush, that is all it takes to start with. Doing the same to the mountain in the back as well. I'm just trying to block off all the darks that I see, so I'm moving on to the bottom pavement section, which is pretty much a really dark gray. I'm just adding some more black to this mixture and just blocking off that part. Next up is the road which appears to be gray, but it also has a lot of warm tones to it. I switched my brush to a small filbert brush, and I'm using some black and white and a little tinge of that green as well, along with some raw sienna to add to the warm tone of the road. Once you created that mixture, go ahead and paint that entire road section. Here Here just adding a little variation of a darker gray to the center. This is just the initial blocking off the base color stage. Don't worry too much about details yet. We will get to that slowly. Now that I've covered majority of all my darks, let's move on to the lights and the mid-tones. I'm starting with light sap green and white to paint the middle mountain. I'm using an even smaller filbert brush for this one. The mountain behind this one is slightly lighter in color, so I'm adding more white to the green to separate that one. If you look closely to the mountain towards the left, it does have some warm tones to it. So I'm adding raw sienna to the green and white to paint that base. As you can see, a lot of this is paying close attention to your reference picture and trying to match the colors as closely as possible. This is where your color study comes in hand, try to practice a little bit separately on a different sheet of paper if you want beforehand just so that you can match the colors as close as possible if that is what you're aiming to do. That's great. Now let's go ahead and block those last two shapes that we have left, which are those grassy bits. I went ahead and did the base of really nice beige color with raw sienna and white, and I applied the flat wash to both those sides. The low mountain at the back along with that land does have some beige to it as well, so I went ahead and added a few strokes to that side.
9. Painting Process Part 2 - Adding Layers: Perfect. Now that we're done with the initial base layer, it is time to spice it up and add more buildup of layers. If you recall the dimension and form lesson showed previously, I talked about how to achieve that by building on colors with layers. This four-stage that we have right now is flat, it looks very flat because it is simply base layers of one color. But now to build on dimension, we are going to add more variations of colors to this landscape. Even though this is a loose landscape and not a realistic one, you will still be able to give an impression of objects and form and make flat mountains look fuller, so now we're going to pay very close attention to all these colors we see on this darker mountains. There are still some variations of mid tone green I see on there so I'm adding some olive green, light sap green and whites to make few marks to those mountains. Going back to those beige warm tones I see on the mountain, I am adding some raw sienna light, but also adding some bronze here. And at this time because I see some underlying reddish brown tones to it with a little tinge of pink as well, I don't know if you can see that, but I definitely see a little bit of that. I find this combination that perfect, deeper, new to color if you will. Again, we're not painting details, but simple, short and long strokes. Some bigger, some smaller. That is how I like painting my loose paintings, they are just a combination of strokes and different direction and thickness. For the grass sections towards the side of the road, I am mixing and some olive green, black and white, and going in vertical, upward motion with my brush. Using the side of the brush will also give you different variations and thickness. I'm just clicking off some of that green to make it appear more like grass. I do see a little darker green to the upper side as well so I'm giving a quick stroke right there. Let's now go ahead and add some trees, keep in mind the distance and perspective of things so the ones faraway should be smaller than the ones closer to us. I'm using the same filbert brush and using the belly of the brush to get these simple strokes, you can also use the side of it to make the trunk and add some branches.
10. Painting Process Part 3 - Defining Layers: Here I'm adding some burnt sienna, some olive green, white, and black. Just to add some mid-tones to some of the trees. I do see a lot of that color on the grass section as well. I'm just flicking my brush upwards and doing it wally swiftly to just give that movement of grass. This is where you can play with really fun movement and add some nice variation to your strokes to just make your painting a little bit more interesting. Going back to the road, I do see some more warmer tones to it. The little hint of that deep beige undertone. I'm mixing in buoyancy in our black and white. The wider sections to the road in the front are a bit darker. Adding some black to that beige brown, make sure that we'll do the trick. It's just a lot of back and forth going in to match the color by seeing the reference bank. I like having my roads with a little bit more texture to it because that is how roads are in real life. I like building on layers when it comes to pathways and such to not only create interesting brush marks but also cool texture. Here I'm just getting the details in the middle, so adding that black curve with the yellow lines next to it.
11. Final Details & Class Project: I'm using my detail fan tiny brush to add the greenish-yellow line leading into the curvy road far back. I'm adding some mid-tone gray strokes to the black section right underneath the grass and keeping in mind to go upwards in a slanted direction because that's how that little pavement is. When you do paint, you always want to keep in mind the direction of the shape that you're painting. So always go in that direction that you see the shape. Now just adding a few dark tiny details I see at the back. Using a mixture of olive green, black, and white, I'm building up on the mountain towards the left. I wanted to add a bit of a pop to the light green mountains so I'm going back in with light sap green and white to define that a bit more. The land in the back is lighter than the mountain in the front, so I'm adding some white and green to that part. Just bringing out some of the whites in the sections I see a bit more brighter like those lines to the road and just a few little highlights. I do see some yellow warmer tones to the lighter mountains so I am mixing in some yellow and white to add some pop of color to the mountains at the back. Having that same color to the grass, to the sides as well. Remember to go in upward motions so that you give the impression of movement and grass. At this point, I am tuning in to the little details that I noticed in my reference pic and just adding a few dabs here and there to build on this painting. Again, make this your own, just use your own visualization as far as the reference pic is concerned, and add in whatever details you may like. We're almost nearing the end and just a few more details and we will be done. I wanted to go back to the tree that we see towards the left. Now, it is a bit dark, to begin with, so I was a bit unsure of what to do with it. You will see the process of me changing it quite a few times, but right now, I'm using raw sienna, olive green, and white to build at the top of the tree. I'm just adding a little impressions of the trunk and some branches with a thin brush. Using that same brush, let's add in some final details like fences to the foreground. Not sure if you can see this in the video, but if you pull up the reference image I provided below, you will be able to see some cattle and cows far back so I'm just making tiny dots with black with a thin brush to capture the really fun details. Like I said, add whatever details you see. It can be personal to each one individually so add how much ever you like. But just so you know, details like this are super important when it comes to your final piece, it adds a story and it sparks conversation, and just makes the painting overall more interesting. It's funny how little tiny marks like this can have so much impact. But at the same time, try not to go overboard because that will end up looking too busy and it'll be really hard for the viewer to simplify the painting if that makes sense. Here we go back to this tree like I said I would. I am just adding some lighter green version again, which I was somewhat happy with so I just left it as is. All right. It's time to take off this tape and see what we have. Don't you just love those clean lines? It is so satisfying to watch. This completes our loose acrylic landscape for today. I think this turned out pretty well and I cannot wait to see what you guys come up with. Share your projects. I would love to see them and do not forget to leave this class a review. If you've enjoyed this class, make sure to follow me so that you do not miss out on future painting classes from me. Thank you all so much for completing your class, and happy painting.
Alifya P. Tarwala, Artist | Acrylics, Watercolors | Painter
