The Quiet Passage 6×8 – 15 min Painting Session!
Transcript and Key Insights
First off, I want to mention that I had to do the underpainting twice because I didn’t focus the camera properly the first time. But the lesson here isn’t about camera work; it’s about our relationship with reference images.
One of the main reasons I make these videos is for legacy, to create a record of how the painting came together. However, there are times where I just don’t want to tie the painting to the reference image for all time. The reference is something you refer to, but ultimately, you don’t want it to be a crutch.
I’ve definitely had requests to show the labeled palette alongside the reference image for the whole session. While good reference is one of the major keys to creating successful paintings, so much so that I may write a book just on creating reference images in the future, the painting itself is what’s going on. I have made great paintings from bad references and bad paintings from good references.
In this specific case, the reference was inspiring, but as we paint, the painting always takes on its own identity. For instance, in the reference image, the sky was actually a bit more open at the top. I chose to close that area up during the session. Sometimes having too great a mass at the top is a mistake, I avoided that here. Painting the reference as is would have resulted in an egregious error. You have to be willing to deviate from the photo when your intuition says the composition needs adjustment.
The Underpainting and Ground
I’m working on a board today that’s a little bit more ochre than our usual rich soil color. This was done intentionally just to give some variety.
The color I’m painting with here in the underpainting is just burnt umber itself. I didn’t feel a need to adulterate it too much, and it ended up working out real well. One of the great things about burnt umber is that it’s extraordinary in every aspect. When it’s heavy, it’s a deep, rich dark color. When it’s thinned out, it’s a beautiful, transparent reddish tone. How reddish or not depends on the color of the underlying layer.
Burnt Umber is a desert island color now. For quite a while, I didn’t even have burnt umber on my palette; I mixed burnt sienna and raw umber together thinking that was enough. But I’ve gotten to the point where having pure burnt umber is essential. By the way, you can see the palette above. It’s readable at 1080 resolution, but definitely more easy to read in the members area at 4k. Check that out if you haven’t already; you get a gander at the reference, live sessions, and color mixing sessions there.
Composition: Sky and Trees
We have the sky in, and I’m real happy with the sky. One of the big challenges of this kind of scene is dealing with the sky peeking through the trees. The way the masses of the tree interact against the lighter sky will be one of the primary defining characteristics of the composition itself.
A common mistake painters make with this type of scene is getting real jiggy with the sky, adding tricky clouds or complex sunsets when they don’t need to. In this painting, the sky doesn’t need that. You’ve got enough to do just having the trees look appropriate against the brighter sky.
I’d like to close up those “sky holes” a bit. Those large holes on the left side up at the top, I considered closing them. However, unless something is truly egregious with the painting, most of the time I’ll just leave it be. There’s beauty in imperfection.
Regarding the trees: we have three main trees and then a fourth slimmer tree. The intervals between those are all quite pleasing. You always want to have some special care and attention to these shapes and the space between them. Avoid too much regularity in the intervals; that can make the scene feel artificial and hurt the composition.
Working in Greens
Now we’re into the greens. One of my goals in this painting was to really make it a green-intensive sort of painting. Funny enough, I think in the end result, it doesn’t necessarily come off like that. It almost has a golden feel to it. That can be attributed to the more ochre color of the ground in the under-painting, much of which is still peeking through.
This highlights an important point: you want to have a bit of dappling in the sky and ensure that the larger sections of sky don’t have nothing interrupting them versus the areas of foliage around it.
I went ahead with some green grass here. A lot of times, I turn that grass gold and I advise you to do the same, but in this case, I was determined to pull off the whole painting with greens. You can see the light greens coming in now. I did go with a more greener green down in the grass area rather than turning it gold.
We have a lot of variation with the underpainting peeking through. I think that definitely was a consistent quality of the painting even as we get into finishing it off here. This peeking underlayer adds texture and prevents the colors from looking flat.
Background Elements and Scale
For background elements, I don’t recommend getting too crazy, especially at this small size. You could get into real detail, maybe even a distant village à la George Inness. Let’s face it, George Inness was working 30 by 40 or larger. That’s a whole different thing. For a little painting like this, you want to keep things manageable.
However, you definitely want to have a place for people to go, or at least a sense of destination. It could just be a little bit more road thats brighter. It doesn’t have to be a lake or village, and I’m not really into painting villages in a small format. I reconciled that quite a bit more in the last year. Keep the background elements simple so they don’t distract from the main forest trail motif.
Practical Application
The entire painting session probably ran around two hours long, which is nice for a six by eight. You can labor over things longer, but it’s always a matter of complexity. BTW if you got this far and are liking the video, great! But if you haven’t subscribed yet, please do so; I’m trying to get the channel up to bigger subscription numbers.
This kind of scene is one of my consistent motifs. It was a real struggle for me, maybe as far back as seven or eight years ago, to even attempt this kind of scene. So, if this is a challenge for you, just keep at it. This is the thing about painting: you’ve got to work at it.
In the modern age, we have so many industrial-strength distractions. Our synapses are basically quite primitive, and we’re easily tilted into distracting ourselves into oblivion. Painting isn’t like that; it requires a sort of peaceful and careful concentration that I think is a real benefit.
You basically want to make things and be productive. That gives life incredible value no matter who you are. Maybe making paintings isn’t the thing for you; maybe it’s something else, like working wood or building things. But anyway, I’ve been pretty consistent in communicating these principles because it’s just a great plan.
Final Thoughts
As this video ends in a moment or two, turn off the computer and go make a painting. How about that? You’ll be glad you did. You’ll feel real good the next day.
Don’t worry if some aspects of your work fall a little bit short. My advice to you in those instances is don’t worry about it. Leave things somewhat imperfect.
Anyway, take care of yourself. Stay out of trouble. Look after all your friends and family, the people you love. And while you’re doing that, fight the power!
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M Francis McCarthy, Your Painter in Residence