Free Oil Painting Lessons

"Aspen Grove Study_01"

By Jim Thomas

09/12/03... Finished

The final steps were all about sunlight, adding it in discrete locations in small amounts that make a difference. Bits of bright yellow were added into the mass of aspen leaves to indicate that light is penetrating the canopy in several places. Then I added brighter light to places in the far distant forest that started out as a dark void.
The more spots of light I added the better I liked this painting. Finally I added a lot of sunlit grass coming in from the lower right into the scene across the forest floor. It supports the overall amount sunlight and its direction.

I seldom post an image this large, but doing a close up gives me a chance to show you the actual colors not so easily depicted in the smaller digital snapshots I take. This also shows how I've added bright sunlight on the furthest away forest, behind the four deer that I've hidden in the background.

Well, that's it. I hope you enjoyed the trip and the many steps in creating this oil painting.

Within a few weeks, when I've started my next painting (an interpretation of the Walnut
Canyon National Monument ancient culture), it will be in this space and I'll add this
painting lesson to my online tutorials.

Footnote:

This painting, "Aspen Grove Study One," was my last picture to start in the lobby of the Old Town Gallery here in downtown Flagstaff, Arizona. The gallery closed on July 28, 2003. I was privileged to do oil paintings in the gallery for two and a half years. This photo, taken by a visitor and mailed to me, shows the last day of my doing the "Fall on McMillan Mesa" painting. FYI

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Commissions for similar work are invited.

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