Monday, October 20, 2008

Autumn Color American Landscape Oil Painting Practice

Today's little 5x7 inch oil painting resulted from my quest to paint the perfect tree. While I love to paint trees, they always present challenges. A painter of trees needs to consider the directions from which the light approaches--which side of the tree will be dark and which side will be lighter. What positions will the trunk and the branches take? How dense is the foliage? Where do the shadows fall? What colors should be selected for the shadows and what colors should be selected for the lighted areas? Where should the sky holes fall in the foliage of the trees? At what point does the background show through? Where does the light hit the branches and the trunk and how does that look? And how can I reproduce it with paint and a brush? Small sized works such as this one are great for practicing. Perhaps I'll never paint the perfect tree, but I sure do have fun trying.
Technorati tags:
, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,