Amber Path 5×7 Live Painting Session!
Drawing, Color, and the Art of Restraint
Good morning, afternoon, or evening. This is your painter in residence, Michael Francis McCarthy, occasionally known as M. Francis McCarthy.
Yesterday I painted a coastal scene—really a sky painting with a little peninsula worked in. I’m very happy with it. Most paintings aren’t perfect, but they’re perfect in their imperfection. They’re captured moments in time. Best to express yourself and move on. That’s my first lesson for you today.
The Setup and Underpainting
I’ve topped up my palette for you, so you don’t have to wait. I’ve been using archival oil spray, and every time that last quarter inch turns into jelly. So I’ve made a small addition to help with that.
This scene has been composited for a while—a wood scene with a path. It’s a foggy day with beautiful colors. I’m going to take some liberties with it because it’s quite complex.
For the underpainting, I’ve been experimenting. For the last few months I complained about burnt umber being weak, so I was adding Mars black to get it darker. But that uglies it up. So I tried adding ivory black instead. Ivory black is already quick-drying, and it gives me the darkness without the dullness. That’s pretty. I don’t even need to juice it up to counteract ugliness. I like that better.
The Drawing: Intervals and Intention
Now we’re going to do a drawing. All these brushes are too stubby—I just ordered some new Robert Simmons twos because I lean on them so much they all turn into stubbies.
One thing I want to call out right away: in the reference, there are two trees very close together, and then another tree a ways away. I’m just going to do one decent-sized tree. There’s also a place where both limbs come out from the same point. Never do that. Always make sure one limb is lower than the other. Nature doesn’t care, but you do.
The key principle here is intervals. These intervals are critical. I don’t want things mirroring each other. In the reference, there were two skinny trees that were mirroring, so I removed one and drew in another. You can’t even tell I drew it in.
I’m also not closing the sky at the top. There’s an opening that will be somewhat lit. I don’t want too many limbs coming in here because any limbs have very strong impact. Generally, after the mass is worked in, I might do a few little things, but I’m not going to over-define right now.
The great thing about painting nature is there’s one rule: it needs to look good. You’ll know it when you see it. Like that was creating a gutter and we don’t want that. So I just start smacking things in there until it starts working somewhat. But we don’t want to solve every problem right now.
Color Mixing: Building the Palette
Let’s do some color mixing. I’m pretty happy with that underpainting color.
We’ll start with our custom gray—Mike’s gray. It’s kind of going to be the color that marries everything together. It’s sort of a sky tone. I want that a little warmer. That’s pretty good. I can modify it as I go.
Then a lighter version of that, using the same three colors: burnt umber, Mars yellow, and titanium buff. I’m going to tuck this one over here—it’s going to be handy.
For the sky, we’re going to have a bright tone at the top. I’m not closing it at the top. I don’t know how much of that I need, but whatever. That’s it for the sky.
Now, Mars black. You’re very handy for what I want you to do, which is be opaque and be dark. You’re not as pretty as ivory black, but you’re effective.
Looking at the reference, I’ve got a range of greens with a smoky quality—that’s the fog. So it can be a little iffy because you’re bringing in Mike’s gray and white. But let’s build our green. This is our dark green, but again, it’s a foggy-ish quality. Will it actually come off as foggy? Yeah, we hit it. Look at that.
A color like yellow ochre already has that chalky quality. And foggy is another way of saying chalky. That’s nice.
Now I’m going to have some more strident tones, but I’m liking that. These pre-mixes don’t get hung up on nothing. Just do it quick. It’s your first idea. It’s a great way to start moving towards the painting. Break things down into great stages and steps.
I tend to squint, and I see a lot of grays. Then I see this clayish tone, which is very close to board color. And then the golds. That’s almost everything. Let’s do this clayish tone. Almost the same as the stuff I was doing for the sky, but a little more oomph. A bit of burnt umber will just give it a little more body. Everything here is a bit subdued, except for when we start moving into the golds.
These gold tones—I’m going to do two. A light, a little yellowy, and a darker, orangier. We’re going to start with Mars yellow and burnt umber. Look at that. It’s beauty. It’s like a dark, burnished gold. That’s going to be my undergold.
Now for the lighter gold. I don’t want it screamy or poppy. We’ll start there and knock it back with some raw umber. That’s our light gold. See? Nice. There’s lighter tones in the painting, but I think that’s good. We can bring in some more cads and yellow ochres as we’re painting.
Painting: Intention Over Outcome
The main thing you’re doing with the painting is you have an intention. If your desire to succeed is too great, you won’t get that. It doesn’t work that way. If you have an intention to paint, to express yourself, you likely will have a good result, especially if you’re applying yourself. You’ve got to take action. You can’t just sit there and wish to be a great painter. You have the intention of being a great painter, and you’re painting all the time, and you’re not too invested in outcomes. You just do your best.
I’m working quite lightly, but I’ve extended the darkness a bit, diffusing it, because what I’m not that interested in with this painting is super dark. I’m happy with that.
My favorite foliage brush is the filbert. Now I’m looking at these greens. I remember making them pretty muted. Yeah, we can juice that up a little. Let me green it up a little, especially for one section I’m looking at. Now that dulled it. I like that.
Things over here in general were red. I didn’t mix any red, but I was just thinking as I was painting that the next color might just splash in a reddish tone. I’m just doing a little green here. Like I said, I don’t see tons, but you don’t want to just have green on one side of the painting, not on the other.
This is another thing I love about the filbert—you can get these kind of nicer marks. You can do that with a flat too, but the filbert has a nice toe.
The Philosophy of Painting
You’re making decisions, decisions, decisions as you paint. It’s infinite, and it’s a definite collaboration between conscious and subconscious, rational mind and your soul, if you want to put it that way. It’s looking nice.
I’m working with an agent to do transcriptions of these live videos. I know it’s very tough because they like to get creative and summarize things, but it comes off not being your voice. You have to be a bit of a tyrant sometimes. They always mean well and always try. But on the other hand, the opposite—I leave in every “yeah” and “you know” and “all right.” These are all things they say to get my brain in alignment. You’re not going to want to sit there and read that.
It’s time to get into that dark gold. I know it doesn’t look very gold. I’m aware. But it’s on the edge of glory. Let’s get some chroma. Keep in mind a lot of this is going to have the brighter over the top. Very much like the lesson I was trying to part with the clouds—if you’ve got bright clouds over blue sky, it’s definitely better to have a gray where it can meet over the blue, and then bring your highlights.
I’m trying to avoid definition back here. It’s inevitable though. That’s going to look fake. We can temper it with a little burnt number and burnt sienna. I’m thinking here where there’s like bushes that are going gold, dead leaves on the ground. I want this underneath.
The Finish
When you find you’re messing things up more than you’re fixing things, that’s when you know you’re done. I might wait a second to see if anything like these little moves. I could be making these for a while. I don’t want to get too many because I like the kind of quality it has.
Looking in the camera, I think that’s a nice little painting. I’ve got one little, a couple little issues, but they’re minor. I’m very happy with the way this turned out. There’s a little fragmented here, and I don’t really want to get in and do a bunch of extra darks because I like the way the darks feel. But that’s a little better.
I’m not painting the world, but you never know. When you find you’re messing things up more than you’re fixing things, that’s when you know you’re done.
Take care of yourself, your family, all your loved ones. Stay out of trouble. Fight the power.
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M Francis McCarthy, Your Painter in Residence