Landscape & Plein Air
Landscape/Plein Air Painting Lessons
"Aspen Grove Study_01"
By Jim Thomas
In today's painting session I really began what might be called the "middle painting," as compared to what is the "underpainting." The early stages of detail began to appear in the aspen leaves, the distant forest void and in the grass of the forest floor. There are great "patterns" within each of these areas and, working from dark to light I've begun to develop these. It requires patience as one paints into the unknown. While painting what are leaves in the background, some green and some just dark, I keep in mind the larger perspective of the mass as a whole. I now also dawbed in slightly lighter color into the forest void for, although filled with shadow and far away it still has some light happening. I've indicated a couple small Ponderous pine trees as well. I want all of this to remain very subtle, and I have a idea for this area which I'll try later. The grass patterns are painted in in tones much darker than final.
Paint colors used in today's work included: Raw Umber, Permanent Sap Green, Yellow Ochre, Naples Yellow and White.
06/21/03...
It's beginning to look a lot like Autumn! This really reveals how the only purpose of the underpainting is to cover the background with a compatible color. The underpainting is nearly always a bit duller than the eventual color. And, I stated before, normally I work dark to light, but the yellow spectrum in pigment is transparent, so I underpaint in a color that is lighter, duller and opaque. In this case I used a lot of Naples Yellow, an earth color. All earth colors are opaque and tint cleanly. I'm still not working hard at making this look like trees yet, just shapes. Painting large volumes of aspen leaves is like painting large billowing clouds made out of colored dots.
Today's colors: Raw Umber, Cadmium Orange, Cadmium Orange Light, Yellow Ochre and Naples Yellow.
