Forest Path 5x7
Hello, and welcome to Tonalist painting by M Francis McCarthy.
Today's painting is 'Forest Path' 5x7.
Our video features the progression of this painting from its initial underpainting stages on up through the final finishing brushwork. Also featured is my usual rambling narration, so please check it out.
Today I would like to discuss an approach to landscape painting that can help a lot. This approach I call paint by numbers. When I was young (and probably still) you could buy kits in the store that had a canvas inside that had been printed with a pattern of shapes, inside of each shape was a number. Also in the kit was a corresponding carton of individual paint colors all labeled with a unique number.
The idea behind paint by numbers was that you would fill each of the shapes with the corresponding color and at the end you would have a complete painting. Some of these kits were very simple and had only a few colors and some of them could be quite involved and have up to 40 colors or more. I did not actually do that many paint by numbers when I was young but I think that it is a valuable idea to apply to your painting.
Essentially with this approach, you should be working with imaginary, individuated patches of color that meet and overlap. It's good to make sure that these patches are not too large or too small in shape and size. If you think this way while painting you can cover your entire canvas fairly easily.
It's good to paint in very large shapes at first that are then subdivided by smaller shapes with varying degrees of color modulation applied along the way. By the way, color modulation is a topic I've discussed previously on this blog and is another thing that I think about quite a lot while I am painting. Even just thinking of the words "color modulation" can be beneficial.
In the same way, imagining a concept like "paint by numbers" even if you are not actually tracing out individual patches to fill, can be very valuable in giving the logical portion of your mind something to chew on and think about while you are painting.
Try this approach out and see if I'm not right, that as a mental exercise that is valuable for completing a painting.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Forest Path' 5x7; I have painted this scene before back in 2013 or 14. I'm not sure where I got the initial reference from, but I'm attracted to these sorts of scenes where you see a tunnel of trees with a light at the end of it.
A painting like this is always going to be an exercise in greens. Something that I intend to maybe talk about next week is approaching greens with some different ideas, so stay tuned for that.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
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| Forest Path by M Francis McCarthy, 5x7 Oil Painting on Wood Panel |
Our video features the progression of this painting from its initial underpainting stages on up through the final finishing brushwork. Also featured is my usual rambling narration, so please check it out.
Today I would like to discuss an approach to landscape painting that can help a lot. This approach I call paint by numbers. When I was young (and probably still) you could buy kits in the store that had a canvas inside that had been printed with a pattern of shapes, inside of each shape was a number. Also in the kit was a corresponding carton of individual paint colors all labeled with a unique number.
The idea behind paint by numbers was that you would fill each of the shapes with the corresponding color and at the end you would have a complete painting. Some of these kits were very simple and had only a few colors and some of them could be quite involved and have up to 40 colors or more. I did not actually do that many paint by numbers when I was young but I think that it is a valuable idea to apply to your painting.
Essentially with this approach, you should be working with imaginary, individuated patches of color that meet and overlap. It's good to make sure that these patches are not too large or too small in shape and size. If you think this way while painting you can cover your entire canvas fairly easily.
It's good to paint in very large shapes at first that are then subdivided by smaller shapes with varying degrees of color modulation applied along the way. By the way, color modulation is a topic I've discussed previously on this blog and is another thing that I think about quite a lot while I am painting. Even just thinking of the words "color modulation" can be beneficial.
In the same way, imagining a concept like "paint by numbers" even if you are not actually tracing out individual patches to fill, can be very valuable in giving the logical portion of your mind something to chew on and think about while you are painting.
Try this approach out and see if I'm not right, that as a mental exercise that is valuable for completing a painting.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Forest Path' 5x7; I have painted this scene before back in 2013 or 14. I'm not sure where I got the initial reference from, but I'm attracted to these sorts of scenes where you see a tunnel of trees with a light at the end of it.
A painting like this is always going to be an exercise in greens. Something that I intend to maybe talk about next week is approaching greens with some different ideas, so stay tuned for that.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Forest Path by M Francis McCarthy, 5x7 (Detail) |
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| Forest Path by M Francis McCarthy, 5x7 (Detail 2) |