Painting a MOUNTAIN scene outdoors - DETAIL TECHNIQUES in Oils

hey there how's it going in this video we're gonna talk about on plein air painting we're gonna do a little painting out in the field and then bring it back into the studio to finish it off with some really cool detail techniques roll that intro [Music] I hope this video finds you well my name's Andrew if you're new here this is the channel where I talk about all things to do with painting so consider subscribing now in this video I'm gonna be going on plein air painting which is one of my favorite things to do we learned so much by working from direct observation of nature and these lessons that we learn out in the field we can take into the studio to improve our painting techniques now I just love painting out in the New Zealand wilderness I live here in the South Island of New Zealand and there is so much abundant amazing landscape scenery that inspires a lot of my studio work so I'm gonna go out to a little place outside of wanaka and we're gonna do a little study from life and then take that back into the studio let's get started I love this part of the world this area has inspired a lot of on blinder trips and some bigger studio works I'm very lucky to have this kind of scenery not so far from my house so it's only really a short drive maybe a couple of hours to reach st. like this I really love the quality of light down here and the way it illuminates these majestic peaks now we found a little scene here just outside of wanaka underneath mount aspiring and there's some beautiful cows here grazing in the paddock in the foreground not to mention a beautiful vector is going to be formed by this freshwater stream flowing through the same whenever I'm painting on plein air I'm looking for a nice variety of elements to make up the painting here I've got a really engaging foreground with that stream leading off into the distance some really nice trees that are catching that afternoon light and those distant mountains I think this scene has it all now that weather looks like it could roll in at any stage during our session so we better brave the elements and the herd of cattle and make a start now I'm painting inside my trusty on plein air posad box here made by alla prima posad and the colors I'm using are burnt umber transparent yellow oxide titanium white cadmium yellow light cadmium red light quinacridone magenta ultramarine blue and cobalt teal now with this range of colors I should be able to mix just about everything that I'm seen in the scene in front of me now going to start things off here with this deep red color and using a synthetic filbert brush I'm gonna use this color to draw in my landscape directly onto that linen panel and here this panel is 8 by 10 it's a fine weave Belgian linen adhered it to a thin plywood board I really like working on these plywood boards because they're quite durable and very transportable perfect for working on plein air now when I'm painting outside time is of the essence so I have to keep it simple I'm laying down some very basic outlines first marking in where I want some of the cows to go that are drinking in the stream of course outlining that stream itself leading into the background in just a few simple marks to note where the trees are gonna go as well as those distant mountains and we're gonna begin the scene here focusing on whatever is farthest away and work our way forward so naturally I'm gonna start with the sky now mixing up some very simple combinations here of ultramarine blue cobalt teal quinacridone magenta and plenty of that titanium white now to cut through the thickness of the paint I'm mixing in some Windsor Newton liquid original this helps to break the tension of the oil paint itself and makes it infinitely more brushable I'm going for big simple blocky shapes I don't want to get bogged down in detail with a non-planar study like this I just want to get a nice impression of what that sky is doing and of course taking note that the sky is changing now I'm mixing up some very simple combinations of colors you can see here that I like to keep my colors relatively clean and separate on that palette now time for the next tier of depth working our way for it we're gonna get those mountains knocked in now any yellow or any warm colors that are in these distant mountains would cause the mountains to come too far forward so here I take a very simplified approach of just mixing some blues and violets together and again not concerned with any detail whatsoever just some very simple shapes now I'm working alongside my good buddy Samuel earth I've had the opportunity to paint in several locations in the South Island with Sam and it's been loads of fun it's wonderful having the opportunity to work alongside other artists because you get to talk about art and maybe even pick up some new techniques the main thing I love about on plein air painting is I just love being outdoors and being out in the fresh air and just being outside in this just amazing scenery it's a brilliant opportunity to really look at the landscape the colors are true to life obviously and I feel like when I'm painting from life that my colors are much more realistic they're more true to life than in the studio and I just think you see a lot more outside than you would in the studio as well so now these days I prefer if I can to try and get a field painting and then use that as part of my reference material for when I want to do still opening now if you haven't already make sure you check out Sam's work it can be found on its website and his YouTube channel and of course he's on Instagram all of those links are in the description down below now I'm working my way forward and getting more and more yellow out thus I'm mixing more green as I bring the same Ford and I'm trying to make these trees here break the vectors that are formed by those mountain peaks like I'm seen in the scene in front of me now of course I'm gonna change and move some elements I'm not necessarily bound by exactly what's in front of me and you'll notice that one of the changes I've made is with the shape of the stream itself I've made it at a little more of an aggressive angle leading the eye in slightly more with the paddock here I'm starting to mix more of that cadmium yellow light as well as the titanium white into this mixture and of course I'm still using those same blues that I was using up in the sky and the distant mountains everything is got a very simple approach now also my brush work here is more or less distinct tiles of color to try and block out that scene as quickly as possible once I have everything down and then I can go back and worry about finer details if I have time within the session it's been great having the opportunity to observe the cows interacting with the water coming down for a drink or wading through it so I've chosen a couple of cows to put in the distance here and I might even sprinkle a few more throughout essentially I'm just trying to give the impression that these are cattle with a very simple assortment of brush strokes now despite how peaceful it is out here I get the distinct feeling that I'm being watched if you hold still long enough you can feel them behind you almost whispering a critique how's it going I think they're proof with painting on plein air I really try to keep it simple if I ever get the time for detail I add those at the very end if the light permits or the weather allows me to but normally I paint these with the intention of going back into the studio and plenty of that Windsor knit and Lichtman allows the painting to be dry if I want to go back within the same day also having a panel that dries quickly makes it easier to transport now this has been an awesome session I can't wait to reminisce back in the studio now I finished my own plein air study and I'm super happy with it but there's never enough time out in the field to put all of the detail into the painting that I want now sure some of these studies are standalone works of art in their own right but sometimes I just have that urge to really finish it off and put all of those crispy little features in there that really complete the same so let's set this thing up in the studio under studio lighting and take our time to really complete it and see this thing through now my painting has completely dried which makes it much easier to layer detail over the top and I've added a couple of extra colors here to my palette transparent red oxide and chromium green oxide now these colors are gonna help me add to the dimension of warmth and the foreground with those beams of light cutting across the surface of the grass now I'm beginning again with the farthest away elements and I'm reworking the sky some of that burnt sienna color that I'd use to tone the linen panel initially that is still coming through in places and whilst I do like some of that warmth I felt that the color in some of these areas was a bit thin so I'm going to thicken it up a little bit making these areas much more up hiked this in turn will lighten and brighten some of these areas but I also have the opportunity here in reworking this little painting to clean up some of the marks and refine the painting adding to the detail naturally in this part of the process the size of the brush has decreased but I'm also using some synthetic fibers here I find that the synthetics hold their shape much better and are better for more refined mark making now the brushes that I'm using here are all available from rose marie-anne co and in fact there are sets of brushes right now on the Rhodes Marine Corps website that you can find by clicking those links in the description down below make sure you check them out they're by far my favorite brushes to use now I'm loading my brush in very carefully and just using the point of this filbert and it's creating some really fine lines that mimic the way the snow falls up in these mountain peaks and I like the lost edge at the top of the mountain and how it's kind of revealed by the cloud so let's go ahead and mix some of this darker color and bring some of these mountain slopes further forward towards the viewer and now I'm getting into some of that cadmium yellow light and quinacridone magenta thus adding to the warmth of it those two colors go together to make almost a scarlet color but when mixed in with some of the Blues it can create some really nice gray greens typical of the New Zealand forest now I'm adding some very fine marks to the right hand side of this painting on this mountain slope and with a very chilled technique I can indicate some of those distant trees now I find that my work particularly some of my smaller paintings they hover between too much and not enough detail what I'm going for here is a sense of realism that when we view this painting from about a meter away it looks almost photographic so hopefully we can achieve some of that effect here but I still want it to be painterly now we can achieve a great sense of depth by preserving our tone this means holding back from using our darkest darks and our lightest lights as we bring these layers of depth of Ford I can get a bit darker a bit lighter but also more saturated in terms of color and this allows these trees here to be separate from those background slopes now I never throw my brushes away I always find a use for some of the oldest man kiyose in the pile and some of these where the daggers have got their bristles splayed are perfect for making individual marks that are reminiscent of leaves there's plenty of cadmium yellow and titanium white that allows me to indicate some of these sunlit clumps of leaves now we better give these cows a bit of attention I liked the mix of different kinds of colors on these cows when I was out there painting in the field so I want to make sure I not only have black and white cows but some of these red and white ones as well so I'm gonna use that quinacridone magenta along with the cadmium yellow and create a nice rusty color here to catch some of that warmth that would be the Sun glinting off the cow now placement of the cows is actually pretty crucial in my mind here I don't want to create a distracting pattern so I make sure I have a nice random assortment but also by having these cows over on the distant bank it means that we have a place to go within the painting I particularly love this cow here having a drink and this is inspired one of the cows in the painting that is going to get the most detail now with these cows the trick is not to overdo it I could really go overboard with the detail here so I try to keep my marks clean and simple and this is being helped by this pointed round which is a synthetic brush it allows me to get an exact stroke in just the right place and once I lay down a mark of color I'll go back and tweak it slightly maybe blending it into other areas now earlier I mentioned about preserving tone and it's at this stage in the painting that I'll go about adding some of my brightest brights as well as my darkest darks now rosemary and coat make a really beautiful ivory dagger which is what I'm using here to cut in some of these lines around the cows and neck I work my way up to the detail I don't try and go for a detailed effect right off the bat but rather have an assortment of brush strokes and then gradually refine as I move on and I always find it amazing what kind of an impression just a few well-placed brush marks can make now it doesn't always work in my favor of course but when it does work it reaffirms why I'm addicted to painting now I go back and adjust some of my marks and make sure that the field blends up into the cows and also cut around the edges of the cows to make sure that they're nice and separate from the background for those last little garnishes those bits of light kissing the trees and here these are some of the most saturated colors on my palette along with some of the brightest so this is some of that ultramarine blue chromium green oxide and cadmium yellow along with plenty of titanium white and I'm making sure that I add these as a random assortment of leaves I'm not necessarily painting every single leaf but from a distance away it certainly does give that impression again these old brushes are brilliant so never throw your brushes away you never know when you're gonna come up with the perfect detail brush now in addition to adding the leaves I'm also using the background color to cut in and cut out a more interesting shape here creating a bit of a lace effect I go back and rework some of those windows to make sure that they don't look like really obvious shapes and then add a few highlights here of the light catching the tree trunks holding up some of those leaves now I need to start thinking about some warmer lighter colors so again even with these bright marks I have been holding back now I have the opportunity to step it up yet again and indicate some of the intense sunlight in beams shining across the grass here and this will allow these marks to come further forward than those trees again adding to the depth and the same now I love that afternoon light is streaming across this paddock here and I only want to have just the tops of some of these blades of grass catching that light and using this old dagger brush I'm just dragging those bristles through which is giving me the indication of individual blades of grass now my favorite and perhaps the most important element in this painting is that stream in the foreground and it can be quite a challenge trying to paint clear water especially when we have to deal with all sorts of things like reflections and glinting light and refraction here I just want to create the impression so I'm gonna be using some of my photographic references that I collected on the day and just methodically go around with some darker marks and some lighter marks and just indicate the impression of what's going on underneath but also some key places I'm going to be adding some reflections of the sky from above now with a bigger painting I take a lot more time with the water and if you're interested in painting clear and moving water then I will be bringing a tutorial out on that very very soon again like with every other area of the painting I preserve those brightest marks for last and I preserve that space just for the lightest sky color coming through and just glinting off the surface and then finally some of that brilliant sunlight shiny where maybe the rocks might be overlapped with some of that water it would just catch that brilliant afternoon Sun and this really lifts the painting and key and it's with those final strokes that I'm gonna go ahead and call this painting finished I had a great time painting this I hope you had fun watching well I really hope you've enjoyed this little video there is so much more to talk about we've only just scratched the surface and I'm super excited to be bringing you more videos this year now if you liked this video then please click that like button for me leave me a comment down below and make sure you're subscribed to this channel click the notification bell so you're notified when I upload another video as always you can find me on social media those links are down below but most important make sure you subscribe through my website it's free to do so I'm in touch with my subscribers they're very regularly on my website you're gonna see some more examples of my work also some links to the other stuff that I'm doing like my podcast like the sketch endeavor series all sorts of stuff so I'll see you there thanks so much for stopping by I'll see you again soon you

Channel: Andrew Tischler

Views: 107,631

Rating: 4.967474 out of 5

Keywords: Oil Painting techniques, how to paint, en plien air painting, painting outside in new zealand, outside painting techniques, painting with Andrew tischler, landscape oil painting techniques, painting with detail, how to add detail to paintings, How to make a colour study painting, how to paint a Mountain scene outdoors

Id: 3rLIthY8xLo

Length: 18min 51sec (1131 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 30 2020