Creating a Roadside Masterpiece
Author: Larry Seiler, Contributing Editor
It is important to understand that adding white to make an object brighter simply does not work.
As you work...the sun will in its movement begin to change the scene before you. You cannot accomodate the sun and lose what first caught your eye. The scene before you can yet be a resource of information to finish your work, but really the painting was completed in the first ten minute rag-in step. What caught my eye was the sense of strong backlighting, and the pines that stood out. I use my knife's blade tip to apply thick pure color.
This ability of paint to appear luminous or brilliant is referred to as "Chroma" and requires the color at its full strength, without white or other mixtures. Yellow-green appears brighter not with white added but a purer intense yellow pigment. Cool colors can be applied adjacent to create more contrast and greater illusion of light's intensity.
Now...its time to put in the sky, and this step is what brings real life to my trees. I use the sky pigment to sculpt the illusion of trees. I don't paint trees, I paint sky to poke thru a blocked-in mass...creating the "feel" of a tree. Here you can see I have suggested deciduous trees in the distance, a sense of trunks, and pine branches.
After this, my attention goes to the water, and I use a small flat brush to dab colors that represent reflection of the shoreline, and color that will suggest reflection of the blue sky above. Also, the water is shallow and allows a brown sediment to be seen on the lower left side. I know many are intimidated by water, and fear it. My suggestion is, don't think of it as water, but squint your eyes and sense the colors and patterns and dab them in. Let it come together and work.
Let's see the whole of the picture now that the sky and water have been added!