Landscape Study: 1

Well, since doing a lot of small apples was definitely helpful in working some of my issues with still lifes, decided to try it with landscapes.

So, I have on my still life setup, my laptop positioned with a lot of landscape images. The purpose of these studies is to study tree, atmospheric effects, rocks, etc in order to have a believable landscape painting. In the summer, when I start up doing plein air painting again, these lessons should come in handy.

The one nice thing about working with photographs is that you can do multiple paintings of the same photograph in the comfort of your studio. The hard part is to not use the photograph as the actual image, but just general shapes. For me, that means that I have to remember that the things in the distance are duller and not as detailed.

So, my first attempt last night. This was fun. I like the idea of just playing around with small 8 x 10's to get the feel of the landscape, rather than the actual detail down. That will come later.