{"id":352,"date":"2026-07-04T02:37:32","date_gmt":"2026-07-04T02:37:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mfrancismccarthy.art\/?p=352"},"modified":"2026-07-04T02:37:32","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T02:37:32","slug":"the-winding-way-6x8-15-minute-painting-session","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mfrancismccarthy.art\/?p=352","title":{"rendered":"The Winding Way 6×8 \u2013 15 Minute Painting Session!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\nhttps:\/\/youtu.be\/FrGY5gztJnc\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The painting I\u2019m bringing you today is called The Winding Way, 6×8. I really liked this painting and couldn\u2019t wait to share it with you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Ground Color<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Maybe you\u2019ve noticed the tone of the board is not quite the same as the rich soil we\u2019ve been doing for the last year. I had a project where I wanted a little more ochre, so I bought a pot of straight up ochre, which I tried doing some paintings on and they worked out okay. I didn\u2019t quite love it. But what I did was bring some of the ochre into the rich soil and I really like this color because it\u2019s a little more subdued than straight up ochre. I found the straight up ochre as a ground color was just too poppin\u2019. I don\u2019t want that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The drawing is just straight up burnt umber. I didn\u2019t mess around with it much and it looks nice on this color. The tree you see me drawing there was my main attraction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The Winding Way 6×8<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Reference<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The reference this is based on is a photo I took a long time ago, probably around 2011. I was out there doing plein air painting. This field had these kind of reddish weeds in it, and these trees were way back in the distance of that photo. I hung onto the photo even though I didn\u2019t use it. The two groupings of trees were quite a bit further apart. They had the rolling hills in the back. They didn\u2019t have the path. Uncle Mike installed that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes, I can make a painting with just a field. But I\u2019m going to want a path in it. I like a path. And there\u2019s always challenges with painting the path.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What I do is basically cut out where I want the path and save it as a PNG file. Then I load it up and say, put a dirt path in here and don\u2019t make it too busy. It gives me some reference. That\u2019s a great use of that particular technology. Probably my primary use. The other thing is I didn\u2019t want it overly contrasty\u2014it\u2019s a daytime scene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Painting the Sky<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Mostly blue sky with some little variations in the clouds. We\u2019re talking about that quite a bit in the last few easel talks, so check those out if you want to get some insights into ways to enhance and amplify your color, so your paintings are more exciting and less boring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The thing you really want with this kind of scene is for those rolling hills to almost seem like a part of the sky. That\u2019s how you get that distant feeling. First, you don\u2019t want too clean or hard of an edge. Also, you definitely want to be bringing those hills in in a value that\u2019s not much different than the sky. Think of them as a part of the sky. That\u2019s a great tip.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here you see me modulating as we go down, and I am leaving room to go a bit brighter. One thing I used to do a lot was go very bright right up to the edge of whatever was breaking into the sky. Just a default. But these days I prefer to keep it a little more neutral and bring in my brightest tones in other places.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I am using flats\u2014and I don\u2019t always use flats but when I do\u2014I use the corner of the flats a lot. That\u2019s the basis of a lot of what I do. With filberts it\u2019s a little different. I\u2019m using the bevel and the toe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don\u2019t Overwork the Sky<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019ve got our sky in and I\u2019m very happy with it. The thing is with skies, you don\u2019t want to overdo any part of your painting but especially the sky. The more you start worrying things and working over things, the less you\u2019ll get that feeling of water and air cooperating together to make a beautiful sky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We want to see your brushstrokes. We want to see how you\u2019re expressing yourself as you paint. That\u2019s one of the main things that painting brings to bear that photography cannot and will not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Path<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I decided to do the path because a lot of times paths will be similar tones. One of my pet peeves is you always have this bit of grass coming up through the middle of the paths. I might kind of indicate it in a way, but it\u2019s not very often I\u2019ll focus on that. I just want to have the paths looking disturbed and natural. If there\u2019s no patch of grass going up the middle, that doesn\u2019t say modern. Here it\u2019s a path that could just be a footpath.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Grass<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m very happy with the way the grass turned out here. In the reference it was a little more green. I will almost always have a tendency to make grasses more yellow because it\u2019s just a great way to differentiate from the trees. I\u2019m going to pass that tip along.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the challenges here was how am I going to resolve where the path is ending up. I don\u2019t always try and solve those problems with draftsmanship because the camera would have given me quite a wide angle and things are real tiny back there. You want to move things around. Also there\u2019ll be way more detail and clutter. You need to simplify things in pretty much every aspect of your painting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even if it looks to people like it might be complex, that\u2019s good in my opinion because I\u2019ve simplified things dramatically. What\u2019s giving people the impression of complexity or detail is usually just my brushwork, which is almost always loose and fractured. I lay down stuff and I try my best to leave it alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let the brushwork tell the story. Let the brushwork feel like detail. That\u2019s what looks nice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When to Leave Things Out<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

One thing I will point out: the reference\u2019s distant hill had little trees on it. Maybe if I was painting this quite a bit larger I might paint one of those little trees on there, but especially there was a tree breaking into the sky. That becomes a real focal point of its own and I didn\u2019t want it. I just painted the rolling hills alone, which gives us a nice light, interesting place to go to. If you got these hills in the distance with the little trees on them, you\u2019re thinking I gotta paint those, they\u2019re really there. Nah, you don\u2019t. Voice of experience here trying to school you, okay?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Red Field<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

You can see I\u2019m coming with the red, and this was the thing about the field\u2014there were these striations of reddish weeds. I don\u2019t know why they were kind of in a striated way, but I decided to work with that. The red I\u2019m using is quite an earthy red, mostly mixed with probably burnt sienna and amplified with my mixing red, which is that Winton cad red hue. Maybe a little orange.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recession and Depth<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

We did that tan in the distance, which was definitely inspired by the reference itself\u2014an area of dry grass going up the hills. I didn\u2019t worry too much about it, but I did think it was cool that we had some place to head towards. Then I supported it with that brighter bit of more yellowy grass, which is helping to give us a lot of recession.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This painting feels pretty good size even though it\u2019s only a little 6×8. I had to do a lot of things to manipulate that original photo. I moved the trees closer together and messed around with it a little bit. I\u2019m really happy I did because it does a good job of capturing some of the more rural beauty you get out here in New Zealand. This is the kind of landscape that appealed to me most when I first came out to New Zealand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hold Onto Your Reference Photos<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s one of the reasons you want to hang on to those reference photos you took that maybe didn\u2019t work but there was something in the landscape that was speaking to you. These days with just a little bit of tweaking on the digital tools\u2014and I know a lot of you just don\u2019t want to mess with those\u2014but if you do, it can really pay off big time. Painting isn\u2019t that easy to do. It\u2019s rewarding, but you can use these tools to really increase your chances of doing something good. Every technique I use and bring to bear on my reference images is brought to bear on both the good and bad paintings. I just want every advantage I can have, and starting with something inspiring and attractive is definitely a huge advantage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don\u2019t Overwork Your Grass<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Don\u2019t overwork your grass. Try and stay away from lots of little tiny thin strokes. You\u2019ll notice I use the brush in all sorts of different directions there, and I got a good result. You should get a sense of that striated feel that was attracting me to painting the field in the first place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s it for today\u2019s video. Take good care of yourself, your family, all your loved ones. Stay out of trouble and fight the power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Take good care of yourself. Stay out of trouble. And fight the power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mike’s New Site<\/a> | Substack<\/a> | Painting Website<\/a> | Mailing List<\/a> | Store<\/a> | My Music<\/a> | Support<\/a> | Members Area<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

M Francis McCarthy, Your Painter in Residence<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The painting I\u2019m bringing you today is called The Winding Way, 6×8. I really liked this painting and couldn\u2019t wait to share it with you. The Ground Color Maybe you\u2019ve noticed the tone of the board is not quite the same as the...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":350,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-painting","rsfv-has-video"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mfrancismccarthy.art\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mfrancismccarthy.art\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mfrancismccarthy.art\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mfrancismccarthy.art\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mfrancismccarthy.art\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=352"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mfrancismccarthy.art\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":354,"href":"https:\/\/mfrancismccarthy.art\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352\/revisions\/354"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mfrancismccarthy.art\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mfrancismccarthy.art\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mfrancismccarthy.art\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mfrancismccarthy.art\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}