Breaking Through 6×8 – Live Painting Session
Today I’m working on a 6×8 painting based on a scene I’ve painted many times before. It’s from a field in England. I’ve done versions of this composition so many times that I know it works. Every painting I’ve done from this reference has been good, which tells me something about the power of a solid reference.
The Reference and Why It Works
The reference itself is fairly simple—just a tree mass, a stream, and a field. Nothing particularly grand. But that’s the thing about tonalist painting: you don’t need an inspiring vista. It could just be a tree and a field, and the subject can almost be just the overall light and harmony in the scene. Anything can be your subject. Any scene anywhere.
Instead of using AI to generate a stream, I went to Yandex and searched for “dream through a field.” I found a couple of references that might work. I don’t waste a lot of time looking for the perfect thing, but I won’t settle either. It’s a balance that’s got to be struck.
The reference has some interesting qualities. The stream is more defined than in previous versions, which gives me more information to work with. There’s also a nice green coming in, which is a cool addition. I don’t want that too strong though, so I’ll be ghosting some of that color.
One thing I’ve learned is to be sensitive to the amount of sky. I had tons more sky above in earlier versions. Now I’m more aware of how crucial that decision is. The horizon line is easy to overlook, but it’s one of the most important decisions you’re going to make in a landscape painting.
The Underpainting
I’m doing my underpainting with three Utrecht colors again. I’ve been favoring threes for my underpaintings lately. The underpainting is just paying off really nice in this one.
I’ve got a whole new cloth here, so I’m going to cut it up and wipe out a bunch of these. I like a little patina, but I need lint-free cloths for the actual painting. You do have lint where you cut it though, so you’ve got to pull that off. Otherwise it’s going to end up potentially in your painting.
Camera Setup
I spent a while figuring out which lens I was going to use. I’m on a Samyang 80mm, which gives a different focal length on this crop sensor, the Canon R7. My 50mm was right up on the painting, so I needed to step back. The Samyang’s minimum focusing distance is a meter, which is workable. This will turn out nice and sharp.
I’ve also slowed down my frames per second to 25, which means I’ve got that doubled for my shutter speed. I’m getting better at this technical side.
Color Mixing
I need raw energy in the palette. There’ll be a little bit of green in this, but a lot of browns and reds and things.
For the sky, I want some opacity, and my opacity generator on the umber is Mars yellow. It’s a great problem solver. I’m bringing in some burnt umber, which is going to be a big player. The color I’m getting is quite close to what I want up in the sky—a little prettier, which ain’t a bad thing.
Moving into some reds, I’m going serious. I bring in some cadmium, and look how strong that is. If a color goes off the rails like that, put some aside. Keep a little bit. Maybe you won’t have killed it too much. Don’t just keep adding paint to the pile.
For the yellows, I’m doing a kind of yellow made out of yellow ochre and cadmium yellow, with some orange so it doesn’t feel all lonely and isolated. I’ll bring in a little bit of burnt sienna.
I need a dark. I’m just going to take what I had and a little more Mars Black, and that’s going to give me pretty solid dark action there.
The burnt umber is interesting. I’ll be complaining about it the whole time I’m using it. But it’s a crucial color. A lot of that tree is kind of that color. The thing that’s tying everything together here is like the burnt umber. That’s subtle, but it works.
For the greens, I’ve got some here already. I don’t need to mix a ton of things. It’s already kind of mixed.
The challenge with sunset scenes is getting the blue right. It ain’t going to be blue. It’s going to be gray. I’m going to need to use a little bit of actual blue into the gray. We’ll do all sorts of things with that.
Painting Process: The Sky
This is going to be our sky brush. It’s a DOS Bristol Filbert, a four. Look at this eye—it’s been worn down. This one looks like it’s been used one time. Let’s see how this looks.
Oh, that looks amazing. Let’s go a little thicker. That’s for the conservators of the future.
I’m putting in the sky now. It’s quite dark, but it’s not dark in the reference too. Maybe a little more red. I’m sneaking in with my stuff. The umber would have brought in some coolness I didn’t want.
We want some of this that’s flatter and more umber-y. Almost like a stench of the blue effect. You don’t want red everywhere.
This is a little more subtle than some do. Seems pretty bright, but we’re going to be going a lot lighter.
The Landscape Work
The underpainting is just paying off really nice. The colors are coming through beautifully. Here’s a good rule: don’t spend a lot of time defining things that aren’t defined in the reference. Just keep them loose in your painting. But if there are things that are very defined in your reference, probably a good rule just to not define them in the painting.
The reference is totally vague in some areas. So there’s a good tip for you: don’t over render something that’s vague in the reference. Just keep it all loose.
There’s a big mistake you can make where you have the light in the middle going out like that. Don’t do it. It’s not right. I do tend to favor one side or the other. So here, I’ll just do that.
Now I’m getting into the landscape. I was tempted to get the flats. I know what the flats do so well. I was working with Silver Grand Prix and those are expensive. Not that these Robert Simmons are cheap either.
The matter is definitely dumping here and juicing it up. That’s grass. The grass needs some work. Probably not quite green enough. Let’s see how we go.
Nice toe on this brush. More gray too on the brush. In here we got a nice color. It’s a little light. Yeah, I was making it redder but I think I want it flatter. I want it both redder and flatter. Can’t do it. That needs to be darker.
I’m really happy with the way this painting is going. I had a good feeling about it from the start. It’s a little looser than some of my other work, but great brush. Very pleased.
Before I do that light green this will be a nice payoff. We’ve got so many payoffs already. We’re going to do this gold color which I mixed. That’s a little subdued. But that’s alright. We’ve got a lot of other stuff going on.
Let’s have a look in the camera. It’s nice. Very nice.
Key Principles
A lot of what I’m doing here comes down to a few core principles:
Visualize the outcome and work towards it while being perfectly fine with failing. That’s how you paint. That’s way better than anything else that technically I’m telling you or doing. That tip will serve you very well.
Think of layers. Think of stages and steps. Don’t go everything straight. Never anything all the way across in a big row. Rows are the enemy.
When you’re mixing colors, if a color goes off the rails, put some aside. Keep a little bit. Maybe you won’t have killed it too much. Don’t just keep adding paint to the pile.
Don’t over render what’s vague in the reference. Just keep it all loose. But if there are things that are very defined in your reference, probably a good rule just to not define them in the painting.
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