I had taken Eleinne's workshop two years ago, but I managed to retain a lot more this time. She presents a wealth of info and refers often to Carlson's Guide to Landscape Painting by John F. Carlson which is a great reference.
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| Carlson's Guide to Landscape Painting, 1958 |
One of the princples he adheres to and that Eleinne emphasized in her teaching is the four planes of the landscape. To create a believable landscape, the following value relationship should be retained. The four planes, from darkest to lightest, are uprights (trees), slanted planes (mountains), ground/water, and sky.
The sky is lightest because it is the source of the light, the other three are based on their angle to that light source. Possible exceptions are snowy ground and man made structures. I finally understand this!
A second truth is that to create depth in the scene, you must lighten and cool the colors that are in the distance and warm those closer to you. Often the scene you are viewing while painting will not follow these guidelines. Photographs are even less likely to conform.
That is why we need an artist. The artist must create this relationship in the work to make a believable painting.
Here is a photo I took before I began to paint in case I might need it as a reference later. Notice how the trees in the distance look almost as dark as the trees in front and almost everything in the photo is too dark?
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| Photo taken before beginning to paint. |
To paint this piece, I had to lighten and cool the trees in the distance by making them more bluish. The ground plane had to be lightened and made warmer. I exaggerated the angle of the trees to emphasize their attraction to each other and left out the distracting yellow gate to make sure the tree on the right got most of the attention.
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| The finished painting. Opposite Attraction. |
I now need to practice so it becomes second nature when I go out to paint.
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