Certainly one of my greatest portray ideas, irrespective of your ability stage, is to concentrate on the massive, easy shapes and colours firstly and reserve the extra intricate and complicated particulars for later within the portray. While you’re a newbie, you are inclined to do the other: you get misplaced within the tiny particulars firstly of the portray after which attempt to repair the massive image points in a while. However that is counterproductive. It’s very similar to constructing a home—it is advisable begin with a powerful basis and construction earlier than you even take into consideration including the flowery doorknobs or adorning the lounge. The inspiration should come first.
My portray, New Zealand, Autumn Colours, is a good demonstration of this concept.
In a way, it’s a reasonably easy panorama with a couple of timber, a sky, and a path snaking by means of the center. However there’s a variety of noise and element. If I have been to attempt to paint all these particulars—all of the leaves, twigs, branches, rocks, highlights, shadows, shapes, and patterns—I’d simply get overwhelmed. So as an alternative of making an attempt to color all the pieces, I simplify all the knowledge into a couple of fundamental shapes and colours. This types the inspiration of my portray and have to be established earlier than I add any of the extra intricate particulars.
The primary main form I see is the foreground in shadow. This can be a complicated space with all the autumn and autumn leaves, every barely completely different in form and coloration. One method for portray this space may very well be to dam all of it in with a easy flat coloration after which add all of the intricate particulars in a while. However I go for a extra complicated method and soar straight into utilizing multicolored strokes and damaged coloration to select up a few of that coloration variance.
It’s essential to notice that simplifying the topic into massive, easy shapes and colours doesn’t essentially imply it’s a must to use easy methods. It may simply be a method so that you can break down the topic in your head into one thing extra manageable. Multicolored strokes additionally make it seem like I’m doing much more than I’m. It’s a surprisingly efficient approach to convey a variety of data with only some strokes.
As I paint all these strokes, I give it some thought as one form and attempt to preserve the colours roughly the identical when it comes to worth. There could also be some lighter colours and a few darker colours right here, however I attempt to preserve the common pretty constant. I then begin to block within the timber. I don’t use a lot variance right here; I simply use a couple of colours that broadly characterize the timber, and I block within the shapes as merely as I can. I loosely recommend the sunshine and darkish areas, however that’s about it.
Subsequent, I map out the sunshine hitting the trail. As I do that, I attempt to make good and correct strokes, however I’m not frightened about making errors, as I can simply rework them at this stage of the portray. It’s extra essential that I paint with confidence. If I attempt to make all the pieces good, my strokes change into timid, and all the pieces begins to look a bit too tight and refined. I have to preserve my hand relaxed and fluid.
I’m really not feeling the brushwork right here for the trail, so I scrape it down and rework it with the palette knife. I additionally go round and end off the shapes that characterize the timber. The palette knife is especially efficient for the early phases of a portray because it lets you rapidly cowl the floor with paint. You can too simply swap between utilizing the knife so as to add extra paint to the floor and utilizing it to scrape paint away. Should you flatten out your stroke, you possibly can add paint, and for those who go in at a sharper angle, you possibly can scrape it away.
The wealthy blue sky is woven in between the timber. I simplify it into a couple of main shapes, making an attempt to disregard any tiny gaps between the leaves or twigs capturing throughout the sky. I can add these particulars later. For now, I solely care concerning the massive, easy shapes and colours.
At this level, I’ve a great basis to work with. All the foremost shapes and colours are in place. It’s form of like a no-frills model of the topic. Now I can concentrate on including the extra intricate particulars, however I’ll cowl that course of one other time. For now, I simply wished to point out you ways I’m going about simplifying the topic and seeing it as massive, easy shapes and colours.
That is additionally one thing you possibly can follow at any time, even whenever you’re away from the easel. Simply go searching and attempt to see the world as massive, easy shapes and colours. See for those who can tune out all of the noise and data. This can be a helpful ability to develop, and it’ll persist with you in your entire journey. It doesn’t matter how superior you’re; you’ll nonetheless attempt to see the topic as massive, easy shapes and colours.
If you wish to study extra, it’s best to take a look at my Portray Academy course. I’ll stroll you thru the time-tested fundamentals of portray. It’s good for absolute newbie to intermediate painters.
Completely happy portray!
Dan Scott