#10 - Birge Harrison Shady Valley - 25 Days of Tonalism Vol 2
Hello, and welcome to Tonalist painting with M Francis McCarthy.
Today's painting is a study painted after 'Shady Valley' by Birge Harrison Note: This post is day ten of 25 Days of Tonalism Vol 2.
Our video features the progression of this painting from its early underpainting stages on up through the final finishing brushwork. Also, watch the video for extended insight and commentary.
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about my study painted study painted after 'Shady Valley' by Birge Harrison; Birge Harrison also wrote a great book on painting called 'Landscape painting'.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Painted after - 'Shady Valley' by Birge Harrison Study by M Francis McCarthy - Size 5x7, Oil on wood panel |
Our video features the progression of this painting from its early underpainting stages on up through the final finishing brushwork. Also, watch the video for extended insight and commentary.
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about my study painted study painted after 'Shady Valley' by Birge Harrison; Birge Harrison also wrote a great book on painting called 'Landscape painting'.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Original painting 'Shady Valley' by Birge Harrison |
 |
| Painted after - 'Shady Valley' by Birge Harrison (Detail) |
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| Painted after - 'Shady Valley' by Birge Harrison (Detail 2) |
#6 Moonlit Landscape by Birge Harrison - 25 Days of Tonalism Vol 2
Hello, and welcome to Tonalist painting with M Francis McCarthy.
Today's painting is a study painted after 'Moonlit Landscape' by Birge Harrison. Note: This post is day three of 25 Days of Tonalism Vol 2.
Our video features the progression of this painting from its early underpainting stages on up through the final finishing brushwork. Also, watch the video for extended insight and commentary.
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about my study painted study painted after 'Moonlit Landscape' by Birge Harrison; Birge Harrison was a second generation Tonalist. He wrote a great book on painting you can download here.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Painted after - 'Moonlit Landscape' by Birge Harrison Study by M Francis McCarthy - Size 5x7, Oil on wood panel |
Our video features the progression of this painting from its early underpainting stages on up through the final finishing brushwork. Also, watch the video for extended insight and commentary.
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about my study painted study painted after 'Moonlit Landscape' by Birge Harrison; Birge Harrison was a second generation Tonalist. He wrote a great book on painting you can download here.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Original painting 'Moonlit Landscape' by Birge Harrison |
 |
| Painted after - 'Moonlit Landscape' by Birge Harrison (Detail) |
 |
| Painted after - 'Moonlit Landscape' by Birge Harrison (Detail 2) |
Day Seventy Nine: The Coast Guard's Hut by Lowell Birge Harrison
Hello and welcome to Day 79 of 100 days of Tonalism.
Today's study is 'The Coast Guard's Hut' by Lowell Birge Harrison.
Lowell Birge Harrison was a well-known Tonalist painter and teacher of art. We've covered several of his paintings in this series. Today's video features a track from my album Tomorrow's Yesterday Today.
Continuing on with my history as an artist and how I eventually became a landscape painter; today I'd like to talk about my first attempts to do landscape painting using the computer.
Towards the end of my tenure as a commercial illustrator I had discovered some interesting techniques whereby I could, in the computer, basically paint over the top of a photo using a new layer and sampling colors from the photo below. This was back in 2007 or so. At that time, Adobe had some brushes that attempted to be more like actual brushes. With a bit of practice I was able to use these tools to get results, mostly on animal subjects, that resembled an oil painting.
I thought that maybe I could use these techniques to create landscape paintings using the computer that looked like they had actually been painted with oil paints. There has been quite a history of attempted natural media brushes and effects in the digital realm. Some of these media work better than others for example, pastel and chalk work fairly well in the computer. You can also get some fairly convincing watercolor effects. I have seen people use the painting tools in Photoshop and painter to create some incredible work and there's no question that good artwork can be accomplished with digital media.
When I first started attempting to do landscape paintings with the computer using the brush tools available in Photoshop, I had quite a struggle to create something that had the proper feeling to it. I made about 6 to 8 attempts at pulling off a landscape painting in Photoshop. At the time I didn't think they looked all that bad but it didn't take long for me to realize that I was fighting an uphill battle, and that what I was producing was a bit stiff and also far more work to do than it would be if I was to just use actual paints and brushes.
I remember going to the bookstore in my neighborhood back then and looking for instructional books on oil painting. One of the first books I came across (that I still recommend very highly) is called the Painterly Approach by Bob Rohm. There is also a DVD of the same name that I recommend as well.
Another guy who's books that I looked at was Kevin MacPherson, he has some great tips and advice and he is the guy that put me onto working with a limited color palette (a great way to start BTW). A book of his that I recommend is fill your oil paintings with light and color and also painting inside and out. These are fantastic resources for painters just starting out. He has a relatively streamlined approach to teaching painting that is encouraging for a beginner.
After getting my hands on some good books, I initially attempted to apply their lessons to what I was doing with the computer as I have not quite given up on creating good paintings with digital media. I discussed this topic in my previous blog here.
Tomorrow we will start talking about my first attempts to do landscape paintings with actual oil paints and canvas so stay tuned for that.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'The Coast Guard's Hut' by Lowell Birge Harrison; I was attracted to this painting because I thought it would work in a square format and I liked the blue tone. Like quite a few Birge Harrison paintings I've seen, this is predominantly a sky picture. It's all about capturing atmospheric effects for ol' Birge.
I was initially going to make the house a tree. If you watch the video you will see in my drawing stage that it is a tree however when I got to my color stage I decided to go ahead and paint it as a house, after all was very simply done and that little bit of light in the window is very necessary I think to the success of his painting and therefore my study.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Painted after - The Coast Guard's Hut by Lowell Birge Harrison, Study by M Francis McCarthy - Size 5x5, Oil on wood panel |
Lowell Birge Harrison was a well-known Tonalist painter and teacher of art. We've covered several of his paintings in this series. Today's video features a track from my album Tomorrow's Yesterday Today.
Continuing on with my history as an artist and how I eventually became a landscape painter; today I'd like to talk about my first attempts to do landscape painting using the computer.
Towards the end of my tenure as a commercial illustrator I had discovered some interesting techniques whereby I could, in the computer, basically paint over the top of a photo using a new layer and sampling colors from the photo below. This was back in 2007 or so. At that time, Adobe had some brushes that attempted to be more like actual brushes. With a bit of practice I was able to use these tools to get results, mostly on animal subjects, that resembled an oil painting.
I thought that maybe I could use these techniques to create landscape paintings using the computer that looked like they had actually been painted with oil paints. There has been quite a history of attempted natural media brushes and effects in the digital realm. Some of these media work better than others for example, pastel and chalk work fairly well in the computer. You can also get some fairly convincing watercolor effects. I have seen people use the painting tools in Photoshop and painter to create some incredible work and there's no question that good artwork can be accomplished with digital media.
When I first started attempting to do landscape paintings with the computer using the brush tools available in Photoshop, I had quite a struggle to create something that had the proper feeling to it. I made about 6 to 8 attempts at pulling off a landscape painting in Photoshop. At the time I didn't think they looked all that bad but it didn't take long for me to realize that I was fighting an uphill battle, and that what I was producing was a bit stiff and also far more work to do than it would be if I was to just use actual paints and brushes.
I remember going to the bookstore in my neighborhood back then and looking for instructional books on oil painting. One of the first books I came across (that I still recommend very highly) is called the Painterly Approach by Bob Rohm. There is also a DVD of the same name that I recommend as well.
Another guy who's books that I looked at was Kevin MacPherson, he has some great tips and advice and he is the guy that put me onto working with a limited color palette (a great way to start BTW). A book of his that I recommend is fill your oil paintings with light and color and also painting inside and out. These are fantastic resources for painters just starting out. He has a relatively streamlined approach to teaching painting that is encouraging for a beginner.
After getting my hands on some good books, I initially attempted to apply their lessons to what I was doing with the computer as I have not quite given up on creating good paintings with digital media. I discussed this topic in my previous blog here.
Tomorrow we will start talking about my first attempts to do landscape paintings with actual oil paints and canvas so stay tuned for that.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'The Coast Guard's Hut' by Lowell Birge Harrison; I was attracted to this painting because I thought it would work in a square format and I liked the blue tone. Like quite a few Birge Harrison paintings I've seen, this is predominantly a sky picture. It's all about capturing atmospheric effects for ol' Birge.
I was initially going to make the house a tree. If you watch the video you will see in my drawing stage that it is a tree however when I got to my color stage I decided to go ahead and paint it as a house, after all was very simply done and that little bit of light in the window is very necessary I think to the success of his painting and therefore my study.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Original painting, The Coast Guard's Hut by Lowell Birge Harrison |
Day Fifty One: Evening Star by Birge Harrison
Hello and welcome to day 51 of 100 days of Tonalism.
Today study is 'Evening Star' by Birge Harrison.
Birge Harrison is a second-generation Tonalist and he also wrote a book about landscape painting that was quite popular and is still in print. I will be getting into some biographical information about Birge in today's video so please check that out.
In our ongoing assay regarding my painting process, today I would like to discuss substrates that I have used and currently use. These days I strongly prefer painting on wood. However, when I started out I was painting on canvas boards like the ones you can find in pretty much any art supply store.
My rationale when I first started teaching myself landscape painting was that I could learn a lot more if I did many small paintings as opposed to only a few large ones. The problem with small canvas panels is that the rough/coarse canvas texture tends to dominate the painting. For this reason I started looking into painting on other types of substrates. Originally I went to Home Depot and purchased a type of panel called Luan that is typically used for doors. The Luan is about 1/8 of an inch thick and can exhibit a fair amount of grain.
Originally I would paint directly onto the wood. After some research though I discovered that without some sort of buffering, the wood would eventually absorb all of the oil from the paint and thus the painting would gradually disappear over time. My solution to this early on was to use grey house paint to coat the boards prior to executing my paintings on them.
Eventually, I started exploring other types of panel and while still in the US I was painting on very nice maple panels that I had cut to a size of 6 x 9. I brought a few of those panels over to New Zealand with me when I came over. Once the New Zealand, I started exploring various different types of wood panels here, some of which were native timbers to New Zealand like Rimu or Kauri. After a while I settled on pine panels at a size of 8 x 12. And I worked on those panels for quite a while.
It was actually in New Zealand, or just prior that I started preparing the surface of my wood panels with a burnt sienna tone, something I can thank Birge Harrison for after having read his book. I have experimented with applying various textures, but for the most part I would just use an acrylic sanding sealer that was colored with burnt sienna, sanding the board in between applications. I like pine but find it a bit soft.
Eventually I settled on painting with kauri wood panels which I purchased from a local supplier. Kauri is a very fine-grained wood that is also reasonably hard. I really enjoyed the subtle grain coming through and interacting with my brushstrokes. Unfortunately the Kauri panels had a downside in that they would have a tendency to be somewhat warped. This is not a problem when the painting is in a frame but I'd prefer the board flatter while painting.
My current solution that addresses this is to use laminated MDF. I have experimented with painting directly on prepared MDF boards and I cannot say that I care for it very much, I do not like the overall slickness. I even tried textured MDF but ultimately found that unsatisfying as well. My current solution is to paint on MDF board that is been laminated with Kauri. This provides me with an excellent, very stable and minimally warped painting surface that also provides me with a nice grain.
Tomorrow we are going to discuss texturing a bit, how I apply it, and how I have utilized textured substrates in my work in the past and currently.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Evening Star' by Birge Harrison; although Birge has written a book that imparts a lot of information about Tonalist painting and how to go about it, he is not technically a Tonalist painter.
I've been aware of this particular painting for quite a while and I was intrigued by the almost completely abstract nature of the painting. I'm pretty happy with the final result.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Painted after - Evening Star by Birge Harrison, Study by M Francis McCarthy - Size 5x5' Oil on wood panel |
Today study is 'Evening Star' by Birge Harrison.
Birge Harrison is a second-generation Tonalist and he also wrote a book about landscape painting that was quite popular and is still in print. I will be getting into some biographical information about Birge in today's video so please check that out.
In our ongoing assay regarding my painting process, today I would like to discuss substrates that I have used and currently use. These days I strongly prefer painting on wood. However, when I started out I was painting on canvas boards like the ones you can find in pretty much any art supply store.
My rationale when I first started teaching myself landscape painting was that I could learn a lot more if I did many small paintings as opposed to only a few large ones. The problem with small canvas panels is that the rough/coarse canvas texture tends to dominate the painting. For this reason I started looking into painting on other types of substrates. Originally I went to Home Depot and purchased a type of panel called Luan that is typically used for doors. The Luan is about 1/8 of an inch thick and can exhibit a fair amount of grain.
Originally I would paint directly onto the wood. After some research though I discovered that without some sort of buffering, the wood would eventually absorb all of the oil from the paint and thus the painting would gradually disappear over time. My solution to this early on was to use grey house paint to coat the boards prior to executing my paintings on them.
Eventually, I started exploring other types of panel and while still in the US I was painting on very nice maple panels that I had cut to a size of 6 x 9. I brought a few of those panels over to New Zealand with me when I came over. Once the New Zealand, I started exploring various different types of wood panels here, some of which were native timbers to New Zealand like Rimu or Kauri. After a while I settled on pine panels at a size of 8 x 12. And I worked on those panels for quite a while.
It was actually in New Zealand, or just prior that I started preparing the surface of my wood panels with a burnt sienna tone, something I can thank Birge Harrison for after having read his book. I have experimented with applying various textures, but for the most part I would just use an acrylic sanding sealer that was colored with burnt sienna, sanding the board in between applications. I like pine but find it a bit soft.
Eventually I settled on painting with kauri wood panels which I purchased from a local supplier. Kauri is a very fine-grained wood that is also reasonably hard. I really enjoyed the subtle grain coming through and interacting with my brushstrokes. Unfortunately the Kauri panels had a downside in that they would have a tendency to be somewhat warped. This is not a problem when the painting is in a frame but I'd prefer the board flatter while painting.
My current solution that addresses this is to use laminated MDF. I have experimented with painting directly on prepared MDF boards and I cannot say that I care for it very much, I do not like the overall slickness. I even tried textured MDF but ultimately found that unsatisfying as well. My current solution is to paint on MDF board that is been laminated with Kauri. This provides me with an excellent, very stable and minimally warped painting surface that also provides me with a nice grain.
Tomorrow we are going to discuss texturing a bit, how I apply it, and how I have utilized textured substrates in my work in the past and currently.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Evening Star' by Birge Harrison; although Birge has written a book that imparts a lot of information about Tonalist painting and how to go about it, he is not technically a Tonalist painter.
I've been aware of this particular painting for quite a while and I was intrigued by the almost completely abstract nature of the painting. I'm pretty happy with the final result.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Original painting, Evening Star by Birge Harrison |