Woodland Passage 5×10 – Live Painting Session!
Today we are painting a forest scene of a woodland with a path cutting through. This started as a screen capture I pulled recently. The original had some different elements, but the tree structure caught my attention. I ran it over to my assistant this morning to add a path. Much cleaner than the original.
I’m working with a synthetic approach here, photo reference, digital composites, and whatever emotional intent I can muster. The basic structure of the trees is solid. Let’s see what happens.
Building the Foundation: Tree Structure and Intervals
I’m shrinking my reference down small. Really small. The goal isn’t to copy what I see, it’s to understand the intervals. The spacing between trees. The rhythm of it.
What attracts me most in this scene is the structure and layout of the trees. Not the foreground grass, that’s just a bunch of nothing I’ll have to deal with using strategies I’ve developed. But the trees matter.
Here’s the thing about intervals: they’re never the same twice. You see one tree, then another that’s wider, then a gap, then trees clustered. I don’t want that looking identical to the reference. I want it to feel true without being a copy.
When you’re working with areas of “nothing”, whether it’s foliage or grass, find the spot you want to lead to. It’s a perspective trick. You’ve got nothing. Just grass. Nothing in the distance. But you know where the horizon is, roughly. You build leading lines toward it. That’s the whole trick. Of course, you won’t paint it literally like that. You paint it like this: broken, varied, alive.
I’ve got my tree structure in place now. Watch out for almost-the-same intervals sitting next to each other. They’re not quite the same, but they’re close enough to feel repetitive if you’re not careful. You want your foliage dancing around your trunks, not marching in formation.
The Darkness Problem: Breaking Up Solid Areas
One thing that’s critical: don’t just do one strong continuous thing on a path. Paths must be broken up. You want a little iny and outy. A little back and forth with the light. In the reference, the assistant did a good job, there’s variance. Not 100% consistent.
Watch out for one solid bar. One thing’s broken up. Watch out for the cliche. Grasses coming into the darks? That’s a great way to solve problems.
The foliage in the back is mostly amorphous right now. That’s fine. I’m not going to overthink the distance. Simplify. Compared to the reference, I’ve reduced it to basic structures. The lighting is what matters.
Color Mixing: Tonalism Without Softness
Now we mix. I’ve been on a purple lately, bringing tones out of pure green mode. Green, green, green, nothing else. So I brought in other tones. The result is more tonalist, but I’m not a soft painter. My stuff has soft elements, but there’s weight to it.
For the sky, I’m starting with yellow ochre. Without adding some raw umber, things look way too fakey. Add a little cadmium. See how that kills the color? That feels far more natural. A kiss of yellow, you don’t need much.
Now I have my darks. Light sky. Dark sky. It’s official.
For the greens, I’m keeping them earthy. My mix is dark today, so I’m adding warmth with burnt sienna. I’m waking it up with Mike’s gray instead of pure white. Lightening with that instead of yellow, which would just make a mess.
These grasses are going gold. Middle tone first. Then the lighter greens.
Here’s a tip I pass along: instead of green for dark grass, bring in a tiny bit of green to temper it. You don’t want people to see the green, but you want it tempered. Dark grass tone. Medium grass tone. Same deal. Bring in some permanent green. Just a kiss. Just a kiss.
This doesn’t look very green, but that’s the idea. And I always hold off until I have to. Then throw in some white. That’s distant. That’s what holds things together. Value is very similar, that’s going to work.
Breaking Up the Grass: The Rustiest Color Isn’t Rust
Grass is nothing. I’m going to put that there. This is a great approach for areas of nothing: break out of brush mode entirely. Scratch it in. It’s quick, and it breaks the paint into texture instead of smooth coverage. I don’t want stroke, stroke, stroke on the grass. I’ll do a little, but the whole thing shouldn’t be determined by that. That’s why you see me using the side of the brush.
If I pull the foliage off right, this base back here will matter. It’s the lightest tree in the composition. It’s important to connect your trees. The reference has nothing connecting them, but here, this very interesting place where it comes down to the path, we need some real strength.
Even the rustiest grass will have living grass in and amongst it. I was pretty good with the darks. Not that this is much lighter, but I’m assuming there’s some spread.
Simplification and Restraint
One reason I wanted to get that purple in early: it’s a lot more difficult to put purple over dark. I don’t mind a lot of dark trees. That’s fine. We’ll do the old “put the foliage over the top” trick later.
The effect is looking good. The interplay between these darks and these lights is basically setting up the whole foundation of the painting. That’s one reason why early decisions matter.
I’m not going to get overt with the purple in the trunks. But I will use it strategically.
Finishing Moves: When to Stop
We’re at diminishing returns now. The painting’s looking solid. The color work is done. The values are right.
One last thing: because of the angle of my easel, sometimes it’s very hard to judge the trees. I spotted a few that are slightly off-vertical. Not crooked, just slanted. You can have quite a few slanted trees, but too many tips the whole thing off-balance.
Easy fix. And fortunately the painting isn’t too matte today, so I can make these adjustments without worry.
It can happen easy with this kind of thing, especially when you’re not painting straight on. I actually ruled straight lines in my underpainting stage to make sure I wouldn’t do that. Preventative work.
The painting is quite nice. I’m very happy with it.
Check out the book: 13 Years of Accumulated Painting Knowledge about how to work in a tonalist way. I’ve got a book for you and I’ll send it to you anywhere on the planet for $65 USD with international shipping included.
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