Close to Twilight 14x14
Hello, and welcome to Tonalist paintings by M Francis McCarthy.
Today's painting is 'Close to Twilight' 14x14.
Our video features the progression of this painting from its initial underpainting stages on up through to the final finishing glazes and brushstrokes. Also featured is my usual rambling narration, so please check out the video.
Today I like to talk about Greens in landscape painting. It might seem like an odd thing to talk about, but one of the greatest challenges to creating an attractive landscape painting is knowing how to approach and properly handle the myriad of Greens present in the landscape.
I've written extensively in the past about the shortcomings of photographs in relation to being used as a reference for landscape paintings, one of the major shortcomings of photography is that it captures a very limited range of greens. Our normal human vision perceives hundreds of different greens quite easily. So my first tip for the burgeoning landscape painter would be, don't just copy the greens in your photograph because there is a lot more color there than is actually being shown.
My other good tip is to use a reddish under-painting or ground color to create your painting on, this will give you a complementary color just below the paintings surface that peeks out in various spots. This creates a lot of vibration and helps to obviate an abundance of green present in the landscape, because red is a complementary color to green.
Another good tip is to avoid using greens directly from the tube, mix your own instead. I use Pthalo Green extensively in my painting but almost never as a green in its own right. My favorite green to use is mixed from yellow and ivory black. This gives me a very earthy rich green right out of the gate that is very easy to modify with blues, Pthalo Green or other colors.
Speaking of other colors, I am always throwing a ton of burnt sienna into my green mixes. Burnt sienna is the also my ground color and you would be amazed how much a mixed green keeps it's greenesss, even after nearly obliterating the mixed greens with a huge dollop of burnt sienna.
Next, (this doesn't directly pertain to greens in painting), I think it's important to note here that the use of a chromatic black in the dark areas will definitely help you with the greens that are going over the top. I create my chromatic black by mixing Pthalo green with Alizarin Crimson. There are times where I might use ivory black for the darks in a painting, but only for a certain type of effect.
Another thing about the greens in your painting, always be strategizing in your mind about your greens and all of the colors that go around them before you begin painting. By the way, Raw Umber is a very flexible color, and it is super easy to turn into a really nice green by just adding a bit of yellow. There are many times I work my Raw Umber into areas right next to my darkest areas, then I can just put the smallest amount of green over the top and the whole passage will read as green.
The last thing that you want to do when dealing with greens in your landscape painting is to overdo the amount of bright greens, like the colors that come straight from the tube. Also, it is good to avoid doing extensive passages of all one color green. Sometimes it's best to ignore the reference and manually insert all sorts of different colors into large areas of green. You'll be surprised how much red that you can fit in and how good it will make the painting look.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about "Close to Twilight 14x14; as I stated in the video there is no video or blog post for the 5x5 study that I did for this painting. I did do a study but I did not videotape it because I was working with a student while creating the painting.
I am very happy with 'Close to Twilight and it has a nice warm summery glow. Also, it's larger than I've been working in the past and it's good to have a successful painting under my belt in a larger size range. This is one of the reasons I wanted to share this painting with you today and I hope you enjoy.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
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| Close to Twilight by M Francis McCarthy, 14x14 Oil Painting on Wood Panel |
Today's painting is 'Close to Twilight' 14x14.
Our video features the progression of this painting from its initial underpainting stages on up through to the final finishing glazes and brushstrokes. Also featured is my usual rambling narration, so please check out the video.
Today I like to talk about Greens in landscape painting. It might seem like an odd thing to talk about, but one of the greatest challenges to creating an attractive landscape painting is knowing how to approach and properly handle the myriad of Greens present in the landscape.
I've written extensively in the past about the shortcomings of photographs in relation to being used as a reference for landscape paintings, one of the major shortcomings of photography is that it captures a very limited range of greens. Our normal human vision perceives hundreds of different greens quite easily. So my first tip for the burgeoning landscape painter would be, don't just copy the greens in your photograph because there is a lot more color there than is actually being shown.
My other good tip is to use a reddish under-painting or ground color to create your painting on, this will give you a complementary color just below the paintings surface that peeks out in various spots. This creates a lot of vibration and helps to obviate an abundance of green present in the landscape, because red is a complementary color to green.
Another good tip is to avoid using greens directly from the tube, mix your own instead. I use Pthalo Green extensively in my painting but almost never as a green in its own right. My favorite green to use is mixed from yellow and ivory black. This gives me a very earthy rich green right out of the gate that is very easy to modify with blues, Pthalo Green or other colors.
Speaking of other colors, I am always throwing a ton of burnt sienna into my green mixes. Burnt sienna is the also my ground color and you would be amazed how much a mixed green keeps it's greenesss, even after nearly obliterating the mixed greens with a huge dollop of burnt sienna.
Next, (this doesn't directly pertain to greens in painting), I think it's important to note here that the use of a chromatic black in the dark areas will definitely help you with the greens that are going over the top. I create my chromatic black by mixing Pthalo green with Alizarin Crimson. There are times where I might use ivory black for the darks in a painting, but only for a certain type of effect.
Another thing about the greens in your painting, always be strategizing in your mind about your greens and all of the colors that go around them before you begin painting. By the way, Raw Umber is a very flexible color, and it is super easy to turn into a really nice green by just adding a bit of yellow. There are many times I work my Raw Umber into areas right next to my darkest areas, then I can just put the smallest amount of green over the top and the whole passage will read as green.
The last thing that you want to do when dealing with greens in your landscape painting is to overdo the amount of bright greens, like the colors that come straight from the tube. Also, it is good to avoid doing extensive passages of all one color green. Sometimes it's best to ignore the reference and manually insert all sorts of different colors into large areas of green. You'll be surprised how much red that you can fit in and how good it will make the painting look.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about "Close to Twilight 14x14; as I stated in the video there is no video or blog post for the 5x5 study that I did for this painting. I did do a study but I did not videotape it because I was working with a student while creating the painting.
I am very happy with 'Close to Twilight and it has a nice warm summery glow. Also, it's larger than I've been working in the past and it's good to have a successful painting under my belt in a larger size range. This is one of the reasons I wanted to share this painting with you today and I hope you enjoy.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
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| Close to Twilight (Detail) |
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| Close to Twilight (Detail2) |