Have you ever gotten deep into a painting only to look at it and think ‘oh crap, it’s not working’!!! Don’t worry, this has happened to me many many times! Even with the hours you spent planning your painting and all the sketches you did prior to starting it, sometimes when it comes to actually painting the art work you imagined, it just doesn’t work! But do not despair because you can salvage a painting that is not working!
In this step by step painting demonstration I am going to show you how to paint this mountain landscape shown in the picture below. This landscape painting is based on Mount Talbot in Fiordland, New Zealand. It is a huge mountain range which ultimately leads to the epic Milford Sound, this is a great subject for landscape painting.
I love landscape art, especially traditional realism painting and I have been painting landscapes for many years. Whilst I paint a lot in my studio one of the things I love to do is paint outside on location in the great outdoors. This is called painting ‘en plein air’, which is a French phrase meaning to ‘paint outdoors’. Plein air painting is not only thoroughly enjoyable, and great for the mind, body and spirit, but it also helps immensely with improving your studio work.
Plein air painting teaches you to really look at the landscape, its forms, colours and tonality. It teaches you to loosen up your painting technique, improves your use of colour and understanding of composition. It also teaches you to paint quickly as the light and weather conditions are always changing.
In order to create an engaging seascape first of all we need to plan our picture so we can determine what the painting is about. Depth within a painting can be achieved by having strategically placed focal points and effective use of colour to create atmosphere and space within the painting.
In order to create the story of this painting I decided what elements I wanted in the scene and where I wanted my main focal point to be. Before I even began painting this picture I compiled many pencil sketches in order to plan the composition so I could see what would work and what wasn’t going to work in the picture. This is essential so I don’t run into problems with composition issues later on when I am painting the picture.
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