Landscape & Plein Air
Landscape/Plein Air Painting Lessons
"Aspen Grove Study_01"
By Jim Thomas
07/06/03...
For the first time I am making an effort to make the trees look like trees. Up until now they were simply design elements in the composition. I am beginning the process now of adding the lighter values to the tree trunks, along with aspen texture for identification.
07/09/03...
In this most recent painting session I've done two things:
I've painted yet another lighter value on the trees, but not all of them. I'm beginning to establish the final value of the trees furthest away deep in the shadows of the grove. Distance and shade make them less bright and less detailed. The trees in the foreground, right in front of me are the lightest and the most detailed. They are about 60% of the way toward the lightest they will eventually become.
And, secondly, a major adjustment:
After studying the painting a while in the past few days I realized a mistake. Allowing the sky to be visible is inappropriate. It makes the trees look too short AND I am depicting this aspen grove in front of or at the edgeof a major mass of conifer trees so big and so dark as to create a dark void in the center of the picture. It is darkness that should be visible in the "holes" between the aspen leaves, where they appear.
The tree bark paint was mixed today with Black, Permanent Sap Green and Zinc White.
07/21/03...
I had to set this aside for a few days, needed to write my most recent tutorial...
Back to this painting... In this session I painted yet another lighter layer on the aspen tree trunks, bringing the foreground trees more into the light. I also started painting the aspen leaves that will appear closer and have bright sunlight hitting them. They will be brighter and, by contrast, verify the density of shadows in the depth of the painting. The mass of tree growth in this grove is so thick that is blocks out most of the light, which is the effect I'm striving for.
Below is a detailed close up of panel "c." Lots of rich color.
