Painting Workshop: Day 1: Thumbnail A

The first thumbnail that I was able to complete turned out pretty well. Due to a large fire in Canada, the sky was pretty smoky. This helped with defining the background mountain lightly and the middle plane.

In this painting (4 x 5), the painting is divided into distinct planes: background (sky and mountain), middle (middle trees), forward middle (light bushes), and foreground (ground).

Items that I learned: 1) The rule that I need to learn is based on atmospheric values. The darkest part of the further item cannot be darker than the plane before it.

Therefore, the darkest part of the mountain cannot be darker than the treeline. The treeline's darkest portion cannot be darker than the bushes. The bushes darkest portion cannot be darker than the ground are immediately in front of the user.

2) Adding purple to the middle area helped the middle area push back closer to the background. Without the atmospheric purple, there were no real distinction between the treeline and the bushes. The purple mixture was created using Lilac + Cerulean Blue. It was then modulated with some Cadmium Red Light and various greys.

3) Yellow Light paint was added to the foreground (grass) to bring it forward a little more. This also provided a way of showing the bright sunlight on the ground and direct your eyes towards the bushes.

4)Yellow highlights were added to the front of the bush to create a more rounded appearance. Since the closest dark is to be the darkest, a mixture of Alizarin Crimson + Ultramarine deep provided some nice darks for the shadows.