Day Sixty Seven: An Autumn Landscape by John Francis Murphy
Hello and welcome to day 67 of 100 days of Tonalism.
Today study is of 'An Autumn Landscape' by John Francis Murphy.
This is a very interesting picture by Murphy and different from most of his that I've seen. The reference image that I have is very tiny. I was unable to find a larger version of this painting online. The nice thing about my digital photo frame set up, is that when I use it as my painting reference it works fine with very lo-res images. Not to mention that at the small-scale that I'm painting in this series, I'm not able to do a lot of detail anyway.
I will be reading some great information about John Francis Murphy from the book A History of American Tonalism on today's video so please check that out.
Over the last two days we been discussing my Tonalist painting process in regards to a paintings first color pass. We've covered the sky and yesterday we talked about trees, today were going to discuss everything else. Namely, what I've been referring to as the ground plane. This would be assorted roads, bushes, hills and whatnot.
To tell you the truth I tend to start painting a lot of these elements as I am working on the trees. If there is a color in another part of the landscape that corresponds to the paint color that I've mixed for an area in the trees then I will start working that in. I do focus on getting the trees (knocked in where they overlap the sky) done as soon as possible.
One thing I didn't mention about trees yesterday was how I like to mix a color for the actual edges of the trees that is really a combination of the sky color and the lightest tree color.This is basically giving me a soft edge without blending.
Continuing on with my first color pass; if there is a road in the painting, many times I will paint this at the same time as I paint the sky. The colors of the road usually correspond to the colors in the sky, although I may have to mix in more yellows and earth colors.
Finishing up, I will do the lightest grasses and lightest areas in any bushes as well as painting rocks and other earth type formations. If there are hills in the scene I will definitely paint them in a way so that they merge with the sky. I think it's important to establish a sense of aerial perspective by lightening and obfuscating forms in the distance.
I've been trying to break down my painting process as much as possible so I can relate it to you in a serial manner.Tomorrow I will be discussing edges in painting. This is a topic that deserves its own blog post as it is often times one of the big differences between a professional and amateur painter.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'An Autumn Landscape' by John Francis Murphy; this painting has some very interesting shapes in the trees. It took me until the second color pass to get them down.
I'm pretty happy with the way the study turned out. The panel in this particular painting showed a bit bit more wood grain than my panels usually have. Sometimes this can detract but in the case of this study I think it works well.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Painted after - Autumn Landscape by John Francis Murphy , Study by M Francis McCarthy - Size 5x7, Oil on wood panel |
This is a very interesting picture by Murphy and different from most of his that I've seen. The reference image that I have is very tiny. I was unable to find a larger version of this painting online. The nice thing about my digital photo frame set up, is that when I use it as my painting reference it works fine with very lo-res images. Not to mention that at the small-scale that I'm painting in this series, I'm not able to do a lot of detail anyway.
I will be reading some great information about John Francis Murphy from the book A History of American Tonalism on today's video so please check that out.
Over the last two days we been discussing my Tonalist painting process in regards to a paintings first color pass. We've covered the sky and yesterday we talked about trees, today were going to discuss everything else. Namely, what I've been referring to as the ground plane. This would be assorted roads, bushes, hills and whatnot.
To tell you the truth I tend to start painting a lot of these elements as I am working on the trees. If there is a color in another part of the landscape that corresponds to the paint color that I've mixed for an area in the trees then I will start working that in. I do focus on getting the trees (knocked in where they overlap the sky) done as soon as possible.
One thing I didn't mention about trees yesterday was how I like to mix a color for the actual edges of the trees that is really a combination of the sky color and the lightest tree color.This is basically giving me a soft edge without blending.
Continuing on with my first color pass; if there is a road in the painting, many times I will paint this at the same time as I paint the sky. The colors of the road usually correspond to the colors in the sky, although I may have to mix in more yellows and earth colors.
Finishing up, I will do the lightest grasses and lightest areas in any bushes as well as painting rocks and other earth type formations. If there are hills in the scene I will definitely paint them in a way so that they merge with the sky. I think it's important to establish a sense of aerial perspective by lightening and obfuscating forms in the distance.
I've been trying to break down my painting process as much as possible so I can relate it to you in a serial manner.Tomorrow I will be discussing edges in painting. This is a topic that deserves its own blog post as it is often times one of the big differences between a professional and amateur painter.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'An Autumn Landscape' by John Francis Murphy; this painting has some very interesting shapes in the trees. It took me until the second color pass to get them down.
I'm pretty happy with the way the study turned out. The panel in this particular painting showed a bit bit more wood grain than my panels usually have. Sometimes this can detract but in the case of this study I think it works well.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Original painting, An Autumn Landscape by John Francis Murphy |