In this painting demonstration I show you how to paint winter willow trees in a landscape inspired by the South Island of New Zealand. Painting deciduous trees can sometimes be a bit tricky because the values of the stems and branches can be lighter than when they are in full leaf, so if you don’t get the values correct they can get lost in a landscape painting.
Whenever I paint a landscape I never just get straight into it, I always do some planning first and the planning always begins with my sketchbook. But why sketch and draw, why not just start painting? Well there is a simple answer, if you go straight into a studio painting it’s likely you’ll run into trouble with the composition.
Planning a painting in your sketchbook first is an important step in the painting process in my opinion. You wouldn’t start building a house with no foundations or prior plans and drawings, it’s the same when planning a painting. Besides which drawing and sketching is fun.
Why is Composition in Landscape Painting Important?
Composition is a very important aspect of landscape painting but one that is surprisingly overlooked. I have visited many art galleries where there are landscape paintings for sale, some with very high price tags that have terrible compositions. Some of the compositions I’ve seen are so bad that it’s at that point I think to myself am I missing something here? Did I miss a meeting? It’s a shame because I have seen many a potentially good painting that has been ruined by a bad composition.
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