How to paint WATER in Oils - Painting realistic reflections!

in this short video we're going to be painting this scene of mount talbot in the south island roll that intro [Music] welcome back to the studio my name's andrew and it is an absolute pleasure to have your company once again now in this video we're going to be painting mount talbot which is located right here in the south island of new zealand this is actually one of my favorite locations for on plein air painting but also one of my favorite scenes in the entire south island it's just amazing the mountains here form a natural composition leading the eye from the immediate foreground all the way into the distance to that pyramidal peak it's unmistakable mount talbot just sitting there in the distance now i've seen mount talbot in all kinds of different conditions and every time i see it it looks amazing i've seen it on overcast days in the pouring rain early morning with that mist rising out of the valley it's just exquisite but here in this particular painting i wanted to show it in the bright sunlight with that jewel like crystal clear water just sitting in the foreground inviting the viewer in now before we get stuck into this project and i talked to you about the materials you might actually remember this scene from a distant sketch endeavor episode that i put up on my channel many many months ago this is actually the next stage in the process i have a design all ready to go i'm going to be referring to that drawing to complete my painting might make a couple of changes so i've got a really firm foundation to be able to carry on forward now let's talk about the materials i'm using for this project starting with the paint now i'm using blue ridge handmade oil colors made in north carolina in the united states these are fantastic oils and the colors are just so punchy and saturated now throughout this tutorial i'm going to be using winsor newton liquin i'm using liquid original liquid fine detail and liquin impasto now i'm often asked what i'm painting on and this is simply belgian linen adhered to a hard board i primed the back of the board and i give the front a color wash now i cover the materials and the entire process in more detail in the full tutorial and you can find that by clicking that link in the description down below now that said let's get stuck into painting i mix up a combination of burnt umber and quinacridone magenta and begin to sketch up my composition directly over the dried tonal wash i'm just focusing on the major lines in the composition and following along pretty closely with this drawing that i produced earlier to begin with my lines are pretty faint but as i become more confident with the location of some of the major shapes i go ahead and firm these up just add a little more paint one of the things i enjoy about this composition is how this foreground is opened up forming a nice vector driving attention towards the mountain in the distance now i've been asked before about the way i draw a scene onto the canvas why not just use pencil first i actually used to use pencil quite a bit but now i've opted for just drawing in with a paintbrush the more you do this the more confident you are with your mark making for the size of the panel this is actually a pretty big brush which is great because i'm going to cover a lot of ground very quickly i always start with the sky and bring those tiers of depth forward towards the viewer initially i'm focused on those very simple combinations of color these arrangements get more intense and more saturated as i bring the tears of depth forward towards the viewer now it doesn't really matter what kind of landscape i'm painting i generally work in this fashion i also divide the process up into three major sections blocking in modeling and detail but sometimes for these smaller paintings i'll actually combine the modeling and detail phase or the block in and modelling phase sometimes i can get done with a painting in two settings especially if it's a smaller size notice here how the blue on the right hand side is much darker and more intense than that blue of the distant mountain this is already creating a sense of depth by having a point of difference between these two areas of color as i bring the tears of depth forward again it's going to get darker and more saturated for my entire career i've been obsessed with this idea of creating a three-dimensional space on a two-dimensional plane the only way to really do that is to observe and adhere to a handful of universal principles try and translate those as best we can and paint now i'm not saying this is the only way or necessarily the right way of going about it it's just a way that works for me but since i've honed in on this methodology i'm able to replicate it and keep applying it to different kinds of scenes now here with these rocks notice how the depth of the tone is significantly lower so these colors are much darker bringing these rocks all the way into the foreground i established the shadow color of some of these reeds and grasses and then go about mixing up some stronger green to apply some highlights i love using this tisch bristle dagger brush for creating some of that grass-like texture in the foreground this brush is awesome for making a wide variety of strokes once i've established the entire area with color i'll come back later and apply some finer details over the top for some of the darker areas i like to keep the paint nice and thin so that's where synthetic filbert comes in handy for the front side of some of these rocks i'm using bristle flats and filberts now i want this water to appear crystalline and reflective i want to be able to see some of the details that are underneath that reflecting surface i begin by painting whatever's underneath first this is the shadows in between some of the rocks and then i'll come back with some transparent yellow oxide and transparent red oxide along with some white and create some of those rustier red colors of the algae-covered rocks that are just sitting beneath the surface painting water is very much a process first we just start off with whatever's underneath the surface first and we'll come back later and apply details over the top once the painting's dry well i really hope you're enjoying this video so far and you're coming away with some new techniques but if you would like to go even further and really drill down into the process of how i created this painting then make sure you check out the full version click that link in the description down below and you'll find the full version to this tutorial you might be learning something here with this free video but imagine how much more you're going to learn with that full version check it out now click the link down below now with that said let's get back into painting now as far as block-ins go this one is pretty detailed there's a lot of information here the painting is totally dry by the time i add some final details over the top i begin working in a similar pattern starting with whatever's furthest away for this part of the process and bringing those tiers of depth forward notice here the size of the brush this is a synthetic ivory dagger one of my favorite brushes for detailing paintings i keep the texture to a minimum in those initial stages and begin to play this up in this part of the process areas that are lighter like the front side of some of these clouds or the snow on the mountain get a bit more texture as this will reflect more light back to the viewer i'm using the physical dimension and the form of the paint itself to drive that light dynamic more texture reflects more light so with this in mind we can use that 3d quality of the paint itself to create more three-dimensional paintings the shapes that i established in the initial block-in are now getting more and more complicated i'm going about focusing on each and every facet of this painting and adding more depth to the tone and more dimension to those highlights here with this forested mountain slope i'm going about establishing both highlights and shadows simultaneously just pointing at the canvas creating that texture i've got a wide variety of photographic references in here i'm looking at this image to get some indication about these scars that were left on the mountainside these are the results of some avalanches or tree valanches where large sections of forest come tumbling down to the valley floor you'll notice here that the block in colors are pretty muted as well when it comes time to add in that layer of modeling and detail the colors get much more dark and saturated when i'm blocking in i'm not painting my brightest bright or my darkest dark for any section i'm shooting more for the mid tone so here on this section of mountain slope on the left hand side initially i just gone for a moderate amount of shadow and highlight knowing that i can increase that dimension when it comes time to do the detailing now here i've left an area of void to establish a tree i can make a pretty dark combination with burnt umber and ultramarine blue or phthalo green quinacridone magenta and burnt umber more saturated greens come further forward towards the viewer so this is another thing that i keep in mind when trying to establish depth sometimes an old bristle dagger brush can be great for creating that grass texture i load up the brush with plenty of paint and drag this over the surface of the dried block in i continually reload my brush with fresh color and where the edges of the wet paint meet it creates some really nice effects cadmium yellow deep and cadmium lemon make some really nice green colors especially when mixed with phthalo green or even ultramarine blue i use a wide variety of greens here to communicate not only grass but ferns as well to create that rock texture i'm particularly focused on edges a great tool for this is a synthetic flat brush perfect for some of those darker tones in the crevices i have a ambient glow bouncing off the side of this rock and that's given by quinacridone magenta and ultramarine blue a touch of cobalt teal and some white i never want my shadows to fade away to nothing or to drop down too deep i always want information to be coming out of every single part of the painting and often when we're painting landscapes from photographic reference we can overlook some of those errors that are present in our photographs for instance sometimes the highlights are way too burned out we can't get much detail out of the image or our shadows just drop away to nothing i like to have both a highlight and a shadow with plenty of detail i use a synthetic filbert brush to re-establish some dark tones in this foreground fern here i'm using phthalo green and some quinacridone magenta again some of those deeper tones help bring these crispy details all the way into the foreground just remember to keep those shadows nice and thin and those highlights relatively thick and this will help create more of a 3d effect i use a synthetic pointed round about double zero to create some of the finer details within the fern like some of these fronds that are unfurling i also like to use a double zero synthetic rigger these brushes hold their shape really well and are perfect for long blades of grass here i've got some dead grass that's entering the water now when applying this technique it's important to have a clean brush so i continually wipe the brush off and reload the color between strokes it's just a very subtle movement with the hand and again just using the ends of those bristles now because the layers are dry between passes it's relatively easy to just go back and paint over spots here i decided to revisit the water and reestablish some of those deeper tones between the rocks i also wanted to increase the saturation or the chroma of my color here in this section of water before i add a reflection over the top now i have only a hint of texture in this brush work here i don't want to go too far with the texture certainly not to the level of the rocks that are above the water as that will be difficult to glaze over the top i never throw a brush away because there's always a job for even the rattiest of brushes some of these sections have got a bit more texture so it's perfect for creating leaves or rough surfaces on rocks i'm also trying to keep those tones in check again saving that tonal best for last that helps my brightest tones register and really bounce off the surface of the painting now here's a trick for establishing a reflection of water using just a sheet of glass i can actually see through the glass and also get an idea of what's reflecting down into the surface i mark out roughly where the reflection needs to go and then mix up a color which is a combination of criminants white ultramarine blue and quinacridone magenta and i dry brush this across the surface i'm keeping the medium here to a minimum and i'm applying this as a glaze over a dried painting you can continually work back into the surface of that reflection fragmenting the image a lot like what a reflection would do in nature i apply some horizontal strokes with just the end of a synthetic pointed round similarly i drag some of the grass reflection down into the water with some more saturated green the same combination as was used to paint the grass itself now the trick with reflection is to use transparent oil colors so that we don't completely obliterate what's lying beneath if i was to use titanium white for instance it would completely kill this effect so lead white is a perfect color to use for reflections because of its transparent quality the last few marks that i make on the surface of the painting are where solid objects enter the surface of the water i paint in a little meniscus here with a synthetic pointed round [Music] well that just about does it i really hope you've enjoyed this video and you've learned something new now again if you would like to go even further and learn more techniques make sure you check out the full version the link is in the description down below now if you like this video then make sure you click that like button for me and leave me a comment down below if you want to come back for more and see even more painting tutorials you gotta subscribe to this channel and click the notification bell so you're notified when i drop another video as always you can find me on instagram and facebook but most important make sure you're subscribed through my website at andrewtishler.com it has been an absolute blast hanging out with you here in the studio once again and i look forward to being with you again very soon so long

Channel: Andrew Tischler

Views: 42,272

Rating: 4.9760103 out of 5

Keywords: oil painting tutorial, full painting tutorial, oil painting demonstration, painting demo, oil painting, painting tutorial, landscape painting, how to paint a landscape, painting techniques, colour theory, oil painting mediums, how to glaze an oil painting, oil glazing, glazing painting, detail techniques, Andrew Tischler, artist, painting artist, New Zealand, how to paint grass, how to paint water, how to paint reflections, paint clear water

Id: eAN4JFCCz2U

Length: 16min 5sec (965 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 05 2021