L._Diane_Johnson: Painting a Landscape on Commission

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[ Home: Landscapes: Painting a Landscape on Commission - PART 2 ]

"Painting a Landscape on Commission - PART 2"
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Author: L._Diane_Johnson, Contributing Editor

Welcome to Part II in this series on "Painting a Landscape on Commission". Just as Part 1 was being published, I received a call from my client saying that the preliminary concept was accepted. It's a go to paint! It is gratifying when there's confirmation that you are on the right track.

Before I actually start painting, I need to do a couple of things to prepare...

Touchup & Spray

Now that I can forge ahead with painting, I want to make adjustments to the drawing then cleanup stray charcoal dust from the canvas surface. I take a moment to view the drawing in reverse through a mirror to catch any visual imbalances. This is most important when doing a symmetrical painting such as this. I then spray a couple light layers of fixative outdoors with the painting in an upright position.

To minimize lung inflammation, I leave the canvas outside for a time. Meanwhile, I look over my color reference board, reference photos/slides, and client's room pictures once again. The more familiar I can become with the subjects and colors, the more intuitive my painting sessions will be and lessens the reliance on references as the painting progresses.

I notice that the client's room colors are much cooler than are found in the natural landscape. The biggest challenge will be to create a natural-looking painting while incorporating these bright, jewel-like hues.

Let's paint...

- The PAINTING Phase -

Preparing the Work Area

Once I begin painting, I want maintain freedom and flexibility as long as possible. Therefore, I setup my space to facilitate starting/stopping without hindrances. I double check to be certain there is enough paint and are enough brushes to complete the painting. Lots of space is allotted to move around and view the piece while working. My photo references are at hand if needed the most important resource being the color reference board.

I lay out the equipment and paint tubes for my palette. These colors differ from what I usually use, but are based on the client's room. It's not necessary to strictly adhere to these, but they will be incorporated in some way in the painting. Other colors are added as needed, but limiting the colors to as few as possible helps assure visual unity.:

Colors:

Equipment:

· Titanium White
· Parchment
· Bleached Titanium
· Cadmium Yellow Medium
· Emerald Green
· Viridian
· Thalo Turquoise
· Alizarin Crimson
· Acra Red
· Cadmium Red Light
· Deep Brilliant Red
· Cobalt Blue
· Ultramarine Blue
· Dioxazine Purple

· brushes; filberts, flats, rounds
· Styrofoam plates
· water bowl
· water
· water in spray bottle
· paper towels
· coffee; large quantity ;)
· easel
· gel medium
· palette knife
· satin varnish
· level

[TIP: I use many types of palettes, wood, glass, and paper. But for this project I'll use Styrofoam dinner plates. When leaving my easel for a time, I spray the paint with water, invert another plate and place on top to keep moist. And since I will use many rounds of paint, I can keep each dried plate of paint as color reference...and they're economical.]

As one final check, I use a level to make certain the painting is parallel to the floor. Otherwise, the pillars and arch could be out of alignment.

Normally I paint landscapes from dark to light, or use a colorist's palette. But I will approach this piece a bit differently*. If I stray too far from what is in the actual room, the painting will fail. Since the client's wall color is pivotal to keying the painting to the room, I have to begin with light colors now and work in the medium to dark values. The room's colors are generally very cool. To warm up the painting a bit, I am going to put a thin layer of alizarin mixed with cadmium yellow over the canvas surface. This will be covered for the most part during painting, but will show through in places to further unify the piece. It will also keep the subject from appearing flat and allows all the colors "read" immediately when making adjustments. (My soft pastel training is in play here :)
*NOTE: There are many, many ways to paint this piece. Top to bottom, center to the outside, sky first, then land, then pillars, etc. I have chosen to do an all over approach, so the whole painting is at the same level of "doneness" at every step. That way, I can stay as flexible for as long as possible before committing to final treatments.

"BUILDING" THE PAINTING:
The Base Coat

The canvas is first sprayed lightly with water then I apply my alizarin wash, and allow it to dry. As you can see in this illustration, the wash is in broken strokes, not even tones. I'm trying to break the white of the canvas. It looks a bit messy at this stage, and will for awhile, but will make sense as I paint.

[TIP: While working on any painting in the studio as opposed to en plein air, try to use the same approximate lighting as the artwork will finally be viewed when installed. Also, take the painting into other light (outdoors, incandescent, florescent, etc. to see how the painting fares visually. It may not work perfectly everywhere, but you can sometimes site areas that need improvement you would not otherwise find.]

The first layer of paint...

This layer will be shown on this and the following pages. The paint is heavier than the base layer, but not as thick as it will be later. I'm covering the canvas with masses of color. No attempt at detail, not for a long time yet. The largest areas are added first, but I had to key-in the teal green in the small trees early to match my color board.

First the sky is applied in a medium color (cobalt + yellow + white) which will be developed more later. Notice however, that darker sky to the left in the painting. The sun will be coming from the right so even now, I am considering the light source. Next the river color is added, which reflects the sky and has many of the same sky colors, only darker. Next, dropping in a few masses of trees and hills (viridian + yellow + deep brilliant red). No real value changes here yet, just some solidity of form.

Blocking-in the mountain & architecture...

Just before painting the pillars and upper arch, I complete blocking-in the mountains (diox purple + thalo + deep brilliant red + yellow) in different color quantities, first spraying the surface of the dry canvas with water to allow the paint to flow. The mountains will be cooler and grayer later on, but for now quickly lay-in a wash of these colors.

Next, the pillars and upper arch are painted in the same color as the client's wall. Since value is important to make the architecture convincing, the approximate shadow areas are applied (using a thin layer of diox purple + cobalt + yellow + white in varying quantities.) Then an overall creamy color (Unbleached Titanium + Parchment + white.*) Like the rest of the painting, I will return to further develop the pillars/arch later.

*NOTE: You may be asking why I have chosen to use the tube colors (in Liquitex) called "Bleached Titanium" and "Parchment". When I matched up the client's wall colors, these two tube colors most closely matched. I could easily mix these colors from white + cobalt and/or ultramarine + red. I will need large quantities of these colors. Using the tubes available will assure I always start at the same place. Then I can add other colors as needed into these.

Until now, I have concentrated on large masses of color. Now I will start working my way around the painting to fully develop the image.

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