{"id":581,"date":"2026-09-16T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mfrancismccarthy.art\/?p=581"},"modified":"2026-09-12T22:37:06","modified_gmt":"2026-09-12T22:37:06","slug":"after-the-rain-4x6-live-painting-session","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mfrancismccarthy.art\/?p=581","title":{"rendered":"After the Rain 4\u00d76 \u2013 Live Painting Session!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\nhttps:\/\/youtu.be\/kvLyCeXx0y4\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Transcript and Key Insights<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019re still in 4×6 mode right now. I wouldn\u2019t mind doing another 5 to 10 of these before moving on. When you get hooked into an idea, it can be very powerful, you can just let it carry you along for a while. It\u2019s all about imagination and whatever\u2019s inspiring you at the moment. The problem with giant paintings is if they\u2019re not great, that really sucks. So for now, I\u2019m enjoying the momentum of these smaller works.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I painted this particular scene many years ago, maybe nine years back, based on a photo I took in England. Back then, I was doing a lot of five by seven studies followed by eight by ten larger versions. But I discovered I was often much happier with the study than the larger painting. These days, I\u2019ve moved away from that approach. Now when I tackle a scene again, I\u2019m painting it at the size I want from the start.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Reference and Creative Choices<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a lot of beautiful color in this reference, but I did have to make some adjustments. One issue: some of the trees don\u2019t have leaves. I hate painting trees without leaves. I\u2019ve done it successfully before, but I don\u2019t like the effect. Here\u2019s the thing, you don\u2019t have to paint things you don\u2019t want to paint. That said, if there\u2019s something you want to paint but you\u2019re avoiding it because you\u2019re being cowardly, don\u2019t do that. That\u2019s not acceptable. For this one, I decided to minimize the bare trees and focus on what\u2019s working: the overall color harmony and the composition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What I love about this reference is the color story. We\u2019ve got mauves in the sky and mauves in the ground, with very warm, saturated tones throughout. That nice color harmony is going to make this a strong painting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Color Mixing Strategy<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Let me start with the sky. I can see it\u2019s got some bluish tones with purple undertones. I\u2019m going to bring in Dioxazine Purple, don\u2019t ask me to pronounce the full name. The key when pre-mixing is: don\u2019t make giant amounts of paint. Put some aside. You\u2019re going to engage with the color more effectively that way, and you\u2019ll have enough to adjust as you paint.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s my first sky mix, a stepping down from dark to light. Next, I\u2019m going for something a little more bluish with some purple. That\u2019s pretty nice. A little more stepping down with the yellows. See how tiny that is? But it will have an impact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the orangy colors, I\u2019m going to temper it with purple. That\u2019s self-tempering right there. I could end up knocking it right out if I\u2019m not careful. More Mixing Red here. This is all pre-mixing, so it\u2019s not do or die. It\u2019s just engaging with the colors, trying to get eight to ten basic colors without overdoing it. No paint\u2019s on the painting yet, so it\u2019s a great place to get your head wrapped around the piece.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the yellows, I don\u2019t need a ton. The Cadmium Yellow goes a long way, it\u2019s expensive, but it really does. Just a tiny bit gives me the intensity I want. I can always make it more intense while I\u2019m painting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the whites and highlights, I need something bright and crisp, but nowhere near the pure white in the reference. That won\u2019t work. I\u2019ll go just a bit brighter now, and there\u2019s the full sky color story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now for the landscape. There are a lot of cool colors in this scene. I\u2019m going to mix a dark green starting with Mars Black unadulterated. You don\u2019t want to spread the black around, so I\u2019m going to lighten that until I get a discernible difference. A bit of red in there would be appropriate, I\u2019ll add Burnt Sienna. A lot of times you just automatically start chucking reds into greens without even thinking about it, but being intentional matters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s my middle green. Now I\u2019m going to bring in some Permanent Green Light, which is the greenifier that makes everything more green. That changes things up from the standard mix.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For a reddish-brown tone that I\u2019ll use in the trees, I\u2019m tempering Mars Yellow with Raw Sienna. Raw Sienna can barely stand up to it, but I like that interplay. Let\u2019s go further with this tempering action. Burn Sienna gives me that reddish-brown tone I want to cram into the tree areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the grassy accents, I\u2019m going to mix Permanent Green with some brighter yellows. That\u2019s crazy bright, but we\u2019re going to moderate it. A little Mic Screen will have a moderating effect because of the black in it. It\u2019s still pretty bright and nice. If I want to go brighter, I\u2019m going to put a little bit of Cad Yellow in there. That\u2019s the color we\u2019re aiming for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the road, I\u2019m starting with Mars Yellow and some Mixing Red. That\u2019s nice. Now I\u2019ll mix a darker version using a little bit of my drawing color. It\u2019s not too chromatic, that road is already verging on too chromatic in the reference. For a second road color, I\u2019ll start with Mars Yellow again but spread it out a little differently. That\u2019s really zappy, doesn\u2019t look like road color yet. Let me bring in some white and more Mixing Red. That\u2019s better. That\u2019s our color mixing session, twelve colors total for this landscape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

I\u2019m going to start with the sky. I don\u2019t want a big fat brush for this, something a little smaller. I\u2019ve got a size two that\u2019ll work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I can see there\u2019s a big diagonal in the sky from the reference. Watch out for diagonals, sometimes you can avoid them, but you always must reconcile them. This one\u2019s super dark, which is good. One of my general policies: if you\u2019ve got color in one part of the sky, you want to have it in another as well. Try to avoid isolated spots of color, even if they\u2019re small.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m bringing in a little purpley color here to balance things out. I don\u2019t want any part of my painting to be too much one color. I\u2019m going to pull a bit more of this red glow and mix it to another purple, then do a little blend. I\u2019m happy with how this brush is working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now for some exciting red tones. I think I can mix this with some madder. The reference is purple all the way, but I decided to bring in some gray just so that other gray on the other side isn\u2019t too lonely. See, this is why I didn\u2019t pre-mix a ton of intense color, it\u2019s very easy to just make it more intense while I\u2019m painting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking at my older work from 2011 and 2012, I notice I wouldn\u2019t go this bright in the sky. But I\u2019m going brighter now. That looks nice. Let me go a little lighter there. That\u2019s cool. I think I\u2019m going to leave it. There\u2019s a bit that\u2019s ugly, let me fix that up. A little more zippy now, especially now we\u2019ve got that bright white in there. That\u2019s a nice sky. It looks great.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Building the Landscape<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Time to move into the landscape. Not a ton of strong greens in this, but I like to come off the darks and pull some color out. I can do that with reds too without getting carried away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Into the reds now. I\u2019m throwing some red in, and this is why actual Cad Red is on my palette. I\u2019m just being intuitive here rather than pre-mixing every single application. It\u2019s a bit dark, I want more intensity. That\u2019s going to have to be a little lighter. I need a bit more green as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I like the greens in this particular tree mass. There\u2019s a bunch of things going on. You saw me add orange in there, that\u2019s nice. Sometimes you\u2019ve got to wipe off your brush because there\u2019ll be too much of whatever other color was in there before. You\u2019re trying to change things, but nothing\u2019s happening. Everything here is really dark to middley, but we\u2019re going to bring in some real popping accents in a minute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m switching to a smaller brush now, a Trekell, because I need something a bit less heavy for some of the next moves. Let me do the road first. There\u2019s more pink in the reference, but that\u2019s all right. I\u2019m going to step down to a size one over ground three, one. Start with the bright green. We\u2019re not going to stop there though. I want that same green over in the tree. That\u2019s a tan that things are going to want to do there. We\u2019re popping greens, we\u2019re done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I knew this painting was going to look nice. And it does. That\u2019s what I love about fall type things, you can just go nuts with the color. There\u2019s a little lighter section in that road where I need to neutralize things a bit. There we go. It\u2019s pretty strokey, but in a good way. I\u2019m not going to quiet it down too much. I like it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And that\u2019s it. We\u2019re done.<\/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<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Transcript and Key Insights We\u2019re still in 4×6 mode right now. I wouldn\u2019t mind doing another 5 to 10 of these before moving on. When you get hooked into an idea, it can be very powerful, you can just let it carry you...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":582,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-581","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\/581","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=581"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mfrancismccarthy.art\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":584,"href":"https:\/\/mfrancismccarthy.art\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581\/revisions\/584"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mfrancismccarthy.art\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mfrancismccarthy.art\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mfrancismccarthy.art\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mfrancismccarthy.art\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}