This will be a difficult painting because it will require you putting color on top of color while the layers are still damp, but not wet. Start with a nice cool grey tone for the sky, and then mix up a cool thick wash of cerulean blue and cobalt violet on top of it. If you wait until the layers are dry you will end up with hard edges, I was looking for a definition of the shapes but with semi soft edges. Using a really rich yellow orange color for the trees and apply this right on top of the background again you should try this while it is still damp. If this doesn’t sound like enough then you have to bring the dark green colors in keeping them really rich and vibrant. Once the greens are down breathe and you can relax. Whew!!
The foreground is a mixture of raw sienna, burnt sienna, olive green and lots of splatters. Make sure you work it right up to the green fields and then as the foreground goes from wet to damp, not dry, that is too late, scrape in the weeds with a scraper or a knife.
The brush marks are done with a very fine number 4 rigger and pushed into the paper and brushed quickly across the surface of the paper. Practice using the brushes in you kit pick one round one flat and one rigger and let them be your voice.
Nice, fresh, lively painting! Love the colors and the composition.
Hi Steve! I really like “winter wheat”…but what is a “rigger”???Miss your weekly class and look forward to a summer date. Bunty
Bunty a rigger is a very skinny long haired brush that is used for detailing lines and rigging on ship paintings but it fabulous for trees. I use a number 4 and 6 although I use a script liner brush from Silver Brush Company also it is a little bigger and has a little more uses. The rigger is king for really straight small details, don’t fall in love with it.
Hi Steve. I would like to contribute to your Spanish-speaking followers that Rigger’s translation by “Aparejador” is absolutely inaccurate, because in this painting context, Rigger is a type of brush. Personally, I have chosen to refer to it without translating the word, that is, I call it Rigger directly, although you could say “delineador”. Respectfully Mercedes