Paul Kratter “Mastering Trees” **FREE LESSON VIEWING**

even streamline publishing publishers of fine art connoisseur plein air magazine and weekly newsletters fine art today realism today plein air today an American watercolor and events the plein air Convention and the figurative art convention we offer over 400 different art instruction tutorials in ultra high quality video by the world's leading artists if you like what you see help us support our artists and our team with your purchase each video aired has a special discount code for today only in the comment section with a link to the video offered and to see everything we do or if you want to receive notice of new releases new products and new events for artists simply click the other link which says see everything we do thank you hi Eric roads from plein air and fine art connoisseur magazines one of the treats I had was living in the San Francisco area and painting often times with artist Paul Crowder today I'm going to share his video mastering trees [Music] [Applause] [Music] you [Music] this is a park radder and I'm going to be doing a demo for you guys on painting a tree I have been an artist all my life for 22 years I was an illustrator up until 2002 and then I discovered plein air painting and I've been doing that ever since have a strong sense of composition design we are gonna start from the very beginning at the sketch stage and develop that using three values I will show you how to design a tree with much more conviction and character I will be talking about atmosphere and man-made objects in the scene as well of course color will be an important aspect of this if you'd like to paint along with me you certainly can so let's get started I'm going to start off with the materials that I use even even the easel this is a portable easel it's mounted on a on a camera tripod the nice thing about this it's on a ball joint which means I can level this if the surface is uneven that I'm standing on it's it's a little it's lightweight it bounces a little bit but it's it's perfect for outdoor painting so my paints are fairly standard except for a couple these first two this is Turner yellow and I just like the color it's nothing that that's so unique and different it's like CAD yellow medium CAD yellow light somewhere in between there one of my favorite colors is India orange yellow orange is another beautiful color cat orange you'll notice too that I don't squirt out that much paint I've done this for ever since I was in college squirt out just a little bit I'm not cheap with my paints but I that's just how I like to do it CAD red alizarin crimson a cooler red my purple is deoxys scene violet jackson seen purple works just as well just depends on the the brand name and how strong it is ultramarine blue this is deep and then cobalt blue I've always put them on this left-hand side just it's convenient for me chromium green deep phthalo green is nice but it's very very strong and you don't see that color in nature very often I've added Kings blue to my palette it's just a kind of a mixing cool color kind of saves a little time I don't use it all that often but it's it's it's a fun color to use burnt umber this is my drawing color I rarely use it for mixing it's a but it's it's what I block in my by painting with since I do a lot of trees and I think most of them have a fair amount of SAP green in it that's one of my my major colors and then titanium white and we obviously go through a lot of that so I scored a lot of that paint out my brushes are I use a variety of they're all the same these are all brights variety from two to ten now if I'm if I'm gonna do a much bigger painting I might use a twelve I might use a fourteen but basically for this size painting I'm gonna use eight in tens at this stage I rarely use the small little to brush except to draw and then sometimes at the very end to put in small little details these are brights the the usual flats have longer hairs I don't really care for those they're a little bit too flimsy these these are a little bit stiffer and then I also have just an old old old brush and this is what I usually prime the canvas with it's beaten up it's got a lot of loose hairs and it's it's nice for different textures kind of just to start off the painting I will use this occasionally if I want some really thick paint or some texture and then this is a hog brush and it's it's very unique it really just looks like a paint brush where the hairs have just been cut off and again it you can load up the brush and get some thicker brush strokes with this this is an new brush I discovered that I liked a lot so this is kind of at the end of the process I might use that the other things I have in my canvas here are on my easel just a drawing pencil to clean the palette I have a flat edge razor blade a palette knife I don't really use this that much sometimes it's to sharpen an edge sometimes it's to to do a roof line sometimes it's a little texture most of time it's just a something that's that sits up on my easel and it's just a decorative device this unique tin cup has been around for about 10 years and it's caked with oil and Terp and medium and it's it looks like a piece of art and right now all it has is is Turpin there I don't have any any medium it's not really necessary for for painting this is a linen panel it's a mounted on Gator board it's got a nice weave to it it's the texture is not too great on this in fact this might be a portrait linen and it's it's perfect for what I like to do it you can scrub it you can work on the canvas a little bit you get and it certainly takes Opaques very very well and I think that's it for my supplies other than paper towels all right it's time to do a demo and probably the most important part of what I'm gonna do does not involve the paint does not involve a brush but it involves a sketchbook and a ballpoint pen this is nothing more than a cheap cheap black pen but it is what it makes some of my work you need at least the starting point so what I'm going to do here is I'm establishing I'm going to do a square format and what I usually do is a quick square on here and people think that a ballpoint pen is it's permanent it's black but you can sketch lightly with this and so you'll get a light gray to start with before I start bearing down all right so what I'm first thing I want to do is establish where is the horizon line that's the height my eye is at in this painting it can be anywhere along here it can even be out of the page but it is the height and mine's about five feet I and so you put that's the first thing I want to establish now I'm looking for big graphic shapes I have four pieces of reference up here the close-up of the barn far away here it is again here it is again in the scene I like this great big tree trunk here but it's a very dark eucalyptus tree and I want to have this lighter version I'm just replacing that so basically I'm doing my own Photoshop I'm combining four photos from I think this is from two or three different days an overcast day a couple of sunny days a close-up I didn't just this one I had to drive closer to get the the details here but this is the main scene that I'm I'm working from so I'm a step I'm going to have this this one you pull up this tree that's up in here this one that's closer to us that's leaning to the right a little bit there's a branch that's somewhere in here it's basically this that's coming off to the the right hands left hand side to kind of counter balance this we have a road that diminishes back here and then I'm seeing some groupings of foliage here what I love is what's happening here with this branch overhanging and then some foliage here and these just light sketches and I'm trying to group some of this foliage I will change this but it give starts getting my head around that this is these are groups of leaves and they're relatively oval shape I will try to make each one just a little bit different there's a group of eucalyptus that are back here there's a barn there's another little building another group of trees back here and a mountainside and I kind of just drawing through all that so that's pretty much my start to a very linear application of this ballpoint pen but this is my start to how I start putting together my my drawing so I'm going to start bearing down a little bit more my on my pen and what I'm thinking here is I start to develop this is one of the things obviously is composition but is this white is it gray is it black and I this pen does not I'm not gonna bear down and make it just jet black I'm gonna make it a fairly dark grey but in this composition it's going to represent black so these can be fairly quick if I'm on location and the light is changing rapidly I might sketch this in in three or four minutes if if this is in the studio I can work a little bit slower one thing I want to make sure as I'm doing this is to tell the audience tell myself where is the light coming from lights coming from the right hand side basically it's going to be one third light one two third shadow that's a totally made-up amount it's indicative of the light that's probably in here but it it tells me and it tells the audience what time of day it is where the light is coming from and I try to stay very consistent with that so I'm blocking this in to starting with the foreground here I also loved this branch that comes across here and goes out here and that is it that has a lot of character for me and so I want to make sure especially in the sketch that it's in here there's a couple others that go up into the canopy and then out of the page but that's what for me with these strong trunks and this these dark which will be dark shapes in here that will give it character along with these very vertical elements the trunks of the eucalyptus tree so I just start graying this in start cross hatching and slowly I build up a set of three or four or five variations of of Gray's what I'm trying to represent in this is is it white is it gray is it black and it's okay to have a couple different a different Gray's but you want to have a good dark and then I the white of the board of the paper that's the white I don't I don't put a light value over that at all it's it's just the white of the paper this is a little harder to articulate I also think about what I'm how I'm going to paint this as I'm as I'm doing this and the the articulation the the part that's difficult about that is sometimes it's what am I going to eliminate what what what elements are important here as I'm as I'm drawing this in I'm also looking at my reference material or if I'm looking if I'm on location I'm looking at at things do I put the mailbox in do I put the do I put the the distant barn and the telephone pole what of course the barn I do want that in there but these the the road do I put the yellow stripe in any of these things I'm kind of thinking about that as I'm sketching this this in and so it's it's a very I would say it's a meditative part of the process but it's it's a time kind of figure out what I'm doing there's a light that's hitting this this side of the eucalyptus and it's casting a little bit of shadow and so this parts light in here sometimes if I'm on location and the Sun moves I can refer to my sketch and be able to tell you know what where the light was coming from and that it's such a an important part of doing the sketch is I can refer to my what I've done so that throughout the process I know what's what's important in the painting and so I'm not changing as the as the same changes as the light changes throughout don't chase the light is probably a phrase that most plenary artists here in the back of their head is--don't as the light changes that you start changing your sketch keep it consistent whatever you thought was important sketch wise design wise shadow wise keep keep after that throughout the whole process so one thing design wise I'm doing here this eucalyptus Grove in the background is further back we're also seeing the entire tree there's another group of trees here and that will help delineate the shape of this barn another water tower building of some sort this area this full tree tells me what the what this eucalyptus tree is like even though I've cut off the top of it design-wise you don't have to see the full tree you are seeing it here so I like doing that in my compositions is to crop in how close can you crop in to a scene and still be able to tell what it is so you're whether you're looking through if you I was really close up underneath here looking through the two trees that could be a nice composition the other thing that I'll do depending on you know what shapes I've designed is a lot of times I then come back and bear down in my pan just a little bit more to design these shapes just a little bit better and it's to re-emphasize these lines I'm not doing this to make a beautiful sketch this is a this is a working sketch it's kind of funny I always think of of the a square format when I can't decide if the scene is should be a horizontal or vertical and if I can't design to decide then quite often a square format is the is the right the right composition it's challenging I think that when you do that you have to make sure that you're the horizon lines a little bit different lower or higher you just have to break up your shapes quite a bit I am eventually going to put some clouds in here but I'm not going to I don't think it's necessary because they're so light that that I put them in the in my sketch all right so now I'm ready to transfer transfer this to the board and start painting but that is really one of the most important parts of the whole process is is your thumbnail sketch the next step now is is to do the demo and the first thing that I do is whether I'm going to work on a on a in this particular case I'm gonna work on a prime canvas so that one unique thing I do not have out on the canvas right now this is a fast matte and it's titanium white with I'm not even sure what properties are in this it dries pretty fast it's an opaque white and I just like it too quickly if I have a couple days for this to dry I can I can paint on this canvas it's it's also a nice it's a nice texture with just a little bit of the white in here to that there's a little grip to it and it's different than just painting straight on this linen board so all I'm doing this is very liquidy and all I used was India yellow orange and a little bit of the burnt umber and a lot of Terp and it's a I'm I like the texture there's just a little bit of grip it actually wears down your your brush pretty fast it's it's not like sandpaper but it just had it has a certain texture that's that's very nice to work on this is also excellent if you want to paint over an old painting you might sand it down and then put this fast mat over it and you can tint it and it gives it a you you now have a nice surface to work on it's not obviously if you have another painting it's on here and you and you've covered it up with a white paint it's changed the the the nature of that surface but anyhow this is something that I like to to use to to paint on that's just a little bit a little bit unique and one thing with just toning the canvas it's just gives if you leave any any holidays or neg if you don't quite cover up the the canvas you rather than having white show through you have kind of this nice cream color and because I I'm painting something that's that's very warm that has warm greens in it it is this color may show through and even even if I cover it completely it's a it's a nice base color to have that is just awesome all right that's it ready to paint alright the next step we've gotten the the all our materials out we've I've done my sketch my board is primed I'm ready to go this is this is this is go time and so what's really important here is to transfer this drawing it seems such a small little part too to your painting but you've done your composition you you've put your shapes in you've made five or six good good graphic shapes out of this you've you've spent some time I do it fairly fast but I'm transferring this not from looking at my reference material but from my sketch so I again I want to establish where is that horizon line somewhere down in here I'm using a pencil that's the only time throughout this whole process that I have my pencil use my pencil here's the road going up here and all I'm looking at is my my sketch here here's my fairly vertical eucalyptus tree there's a couple of bigger branches that come off here at an angle I'm just starting to indicate it's just some of these bigger bigger groups of foliage I've got this nice big branch that comes off of here comes up into here I may have it come off the right side of the page I'm not sure at this point that's not a critical part of the of the painting I've got another eucalyptus tree here it's a little further back this one comes in front there's some foliage and stuff here so now I've got this this major area that there's the big tree the two big trunks and I've got a small barn that's back here here's my furthest eucalyptus grove back here here's the roof of the barn I've got a tree back here there's a water tower in here and another shed another outbuilding of some sort here there's a hillside back here that's pretty pretty far back try not to get it in the middle of the the page and then I could just use my finger to figure this out so it seems like this is such a it's not a terribly important part but it really is and I'll explain that I've done a sketch here with a ballpoint pen I've done a pencil drawing and now I'm gonna block this in quickly with an umber my umber Block in and so it's three times that I've drawn this and that it just shows you how important the drawing is this is one I can make changes this is when I'm checking my drawing my perspective my general shapes I can still make small changes as I go but this this is this is my blueprint for what I'm doing on the on the painting all right onto the next step now I'm going to block this in with a burnt umber drawing and primarily I'm following my pencil lines but this is also the time where I start making some adjustments so am i dropping the horizon line a little bit do I need to raise it do i these are all small little things that I'm starting to make some quote artistic changes and adjustments to so this is just burnt umber and this is relatively a straight eucalyptus tree now if it leans a little bit that's okay they don't all grow perfectly straight what I do like in combination with a few different photos and reference material I love that there's a really nice branch that comes off at quite an angle and there is another one back here so I like that this strong vertical here there's another tree that's a little further back and then I'm going to start designing and developing some of these groups of foliage and I will these can change a little bit as I'm as I'm painting and figuring all this out but I trying to establish that I have some different varieties bigger general circles spheres ovals groupings that are hanging out from these branches that are semi semi connected to a nice branch let's say I'm also holding my brush almost in the middle and I'm rolling it a little bit as I need to get a different edge and it's just a way to have control with the brush and yet also have a light touch I happen to like I'm I don't paint as many circles in spheres as I do rectangles and squares and triangles so I like putting edges on on my paintings even even the these organic shapes and it's just me it's part of my design nature and I will go back later and soften up some of those edges and make them rounder and softer but it helps me as a as a designer make better shapes out of what I'm what I'm painting so I've got this nice diagonal here with a little notch in here the horizon line I think should be a little lower and yes that's tangent with this bunch of foliage so that's something I can correct right now sometimes all at the very end of the painting I'll just measure this what's that what's the height here versus here and just use my finger and now that oh I might have to raise that just a little bit the base of this eucalyptus is somewhere in here this one's a little further back I think I'm going to put another there might be another branch in here another group of trees back there there's some overhang here of some foliage here's this back eucalyptus and it has such a great shape I have painted this numerous this ranch numerous times up close far away different angles but back to composition the rest of tree is way up here do we have to see the tops of this tree - we always have to include the full thing we see what this eucalyptus what they look like fully from this one back here so I think just compositionally this is stronger having something that is this great big focus of this tree of looking past this tree to this ranch seen back here sometimes elements like this organic shape help frame the barn and help frame these if this is a lighter element and this is a little bit darker that silhouetted shape may show up better so those are little design things that help you show off what you're what you're trying to paint to help orchestrate a better silhouette let's say just dropping this hillside back just a little bit the pencil drawing by the time I start painting on here is going to disappear it's it's not going to muddy the the paint if it does it's it's ever so slightly now I don't usually paint in all the fence posts because there when I paint this green field back here I'm gonna put the fence I'm not going to paint around each fence post but sometimes I'll just put in just indicate these a few of these so that they it looks like they're going back into perspective just to give my myself an idea of where these were these are these fence posts are now lights coming from here it's gonna cause a shadow here this tree is gonna cause a shadow if public is gonna combine with that that tree just to get those basic basic shapes coming in there so what I've compositionally I've got this great big shape dark shape here in the foreground the atmosphere in here is gonna push this scene where the horizon line is quite lower I want to make sure that these are blue grays and maybe in the five value range as they as they push them back we've got a really distant hillside back here I probably will put some clouds in here but I want to make that feel like it's really going back into perspective all right now I'm ready to attack the next stage which is just to lay in start laying in some some shadow shapes and get some color on here all right the next stage here is is to start painting start putting some color down here a couple of different things this is an important step to go back stage to go back and look at the painting does anything pop out there you go I made a tangent I there's something funny about this the drawing is off so I will back up take a look and just kind of look at my painting and just okay did I have I captured what I want - is there anything that that's glaring no it's it's darn nearly perfect so come up here the other thing that I do this is at a camera view but I always take my sketchbook and drop it at my feet and have it have it there as something I can refer to and the reason for that is when I back up and what I'm when I'm painting and looking at what I'm doing I want to make sure that I I'm capturing here what I initially thought about in my sketch that there's a strong silhouetted shape and the impact that I first saw on this I've captured in my sketch so sometimes there's details in here that I need to see but most the time it's just to kind of refresh my mind that's what I saw and that's what's important so I'm gonna make up a a greenish this is SAP green and alizarin crimson and I'm gonna block in quickly my shadow shapes of the foreground I already have a tone for the for the sky it's not going to be in this color range but it's going to be this in this light light value stage so I sometimes that's the first thing I'll start with but in this case I want to start with my shadow shapes so this is a number 10 bright brush my paint is fairly liquidy meaning all I have is Terp no medium at all and I'm just going to fairly quickly start blocking this in now a lot of these brush strokes are not going they're not following form meaning they're not really following the path of where the Foley how the foliage is growing that happens mainly in the when I get to the light side of whatever object I'm painting and I'll refer to I'll get to that as as we go but so these these brush strokes are much more all I'm trying to do is cover the panel get some color on here some value and get block in this big silhouetted shape the other thing that's really important throughout is to draw with the brush this is not just fill-in with paint and not draw anymore so I'm constantly redrawing a shape that I see re emphasizing it so what colours are these I can hear in the background somebody at home this is its this was a little bit of a dirty brush I used it earlier today SAP green in a lizard alizarin crimson I did touch into this chromium green I did touch this blue I might touch the orange a little bit so it's not a dirty color it's just it's a it's a rich color that is what I'm mainly concerned with is it a dark value is it a seven or eight at this at this saw at this stage still pretty thin oops even these big areas of foliage that are back here this I want some of these groupings to come forward I want to have some that are overlapping the the trunk of the tree and I want to have some deeper recesses so even at this stage I could have just painted this entire area just as a dark but I'm just starting to set up a a little bit of change in here where I have some areas that are coming forward and some that are receding a little bit further I want to have a a couple areas where the the foliage goes in front of the the trunk so I'm still just working in the shadow area of this this eucalyptus tree still relatively transparent there's just a tad bit of white in in here the other thing that I like to do I like nuances of color that might be in the shadows that you really don't see unless you really get close to the painting so as I'm starting to develop this and get some colors in here you see there's a little red there's a little blue I'll push these a little bit further as I as I go so there's there is a reward when you come up and look at the painting up close that it's not just about this big impact but something up close that you might see some nuances of color some little color ships those are what at the end make the painting so interesting but you have to start that'll at least for me a little bit early so I'm still just putting these shadows shapes in but I'm I'm also thinking about oh I want a little bit of some nuances here these big areas in here that I've left open are the lighter side of this big the big eucalyptus tree and I really think there's there's a couple ways to work here you can I could just paint the full silhouette with a light a medium color let's say a medium value and and just do the silhouette the other way is just to paint all the shadow shapes first and in this particular painting that's that's what I'm doing is just blocking in all the shadow shapes again lights coming from here from the right-hand side and the top there may be some spots of light that hit this I can add that later but this is further away from this light source these are kind of Crescent shapes suggest if these are spheres if the if one-third of this is light you're going to kind of have this crescent shape as if there is a a sphere a ball that's that's for each one of these overlapping areas that's how that's how I look at the groups of foliage it's a it's a bunch of styrofoam balls put together to make this to make this tree again I'm just redefining some of these edges it's really easy to lose your you're painting lose the that drawing and so I if there's parts that I I lose a little bit I don't mind coming back and just redrawing them you can't draw too much on your painting all right that's the main main shadow area of this this great big eucalyptus tree let's block in the the shadow shape of the of the main trunks of this eucalyptus this is I'm using a little bit of purple a little bit of Indy yellow orange I want a warmish light side or a shadow side to this tree now that I'm gonna leave the lot of the light I'm not going to put any lights and might be one of the last things I do the the light shining on the on the the trunks of the tree but this just starts giving me just a little bit of what this what's happening light wise on this tree so there in this particular case there's this light that's hitting this one-third edge of this tree and I'm not concerned at this point of putting in a core shadow I just wanted a shadow color here and then I can start making some comparisons all right so I've got a little light shaft here maybe a little bit here this branch is going further back in the into the canopy and so I want to lose it a little bit more so just gonna make it a little darker and especially right up against the edge of this about this part of the eucalyptus tree and then there's this one is also back here so you got a couple of main interesting trunks branches and this one can kind of come out of the out of the back of this this foliage that's coming forward I may change that if it's if it feels like it's a tangent there and then I'm gonna also make a here's this eucalyptus that's just a little further back now you may get some of this this foliage here may be causing a shadow across the eucalyptus and just it's just starting to kind of build up this that it's not just this there's other things that could be causing shadows and light so this group of foliage is causing a shadow right here as this goes up underneath underneath here so it's it's a kind of a slow build up now with the same brush for my shadow colors in here I'm gonna clean it slightly I'm using a really dirty paper paper towel but I like neutral colors so this next group of of foliage back here this this atmospheric area is a blue gray and I'm more interested at this stage in getting the value right than the color right so what's important about this really it's it's about value and so I'm I'm trying yes it it wants to be cooler and it's a bluish purple and I could tell you it has Jackson violet I can tell you it has ultra blue in it a little cobalt but I didn't clean the brush all that well so there's there's a little bit of of this color in here there's a little that that SAP green and a little red so that sometimes the colors are very neutralized and they're hard it's it's hard to describe that it's not just one particular color it may predominantly be something but it's it's it's going to be difficult with my paintings to to absolutely follow through I can say that it's predominantly this color but it's going to have some other little little variations in it and like I said I like neutral colors all right so here I've I blocked in a couple of of organic shapes of trees back here are there five six eight trees I don't know there's this going to be this one eucalyptus tree here I'm not even sure I know this wasn't a eucalyptus tree but something similar in shape a little bit smaller in size but sometimes these organic shapes are really great to help bring out something bring out this man-made shape so even if it's if I push it way back and I don't have a big contrast this just by chiseling in this this shape I I make it a nice silhouette that that helps pop that just a little bit at this stage I might there's a little shadow underneath here I'm gonna use the same color the same value there's a roof and Eve here I may draw this in block in a little bit of a doorway there there may be stuff that's happening in front of the barn hay bales or a fence line or something but sometimes this is I'm just trying to block in my some of my drawing at this at this stage all right still working just in shadow I have not picked up I have not done anything to with the light side it's strictly the the shadows that I'm seeing even the distant hills back here I'm mixing up a cobalt blue titanium white a little of that sky blue Kings blue and I'm more interested that I get this value right than the color it's going to be close but I can make adjustments to it it's far easier to shift a color because you have the the value right then if the value is wrong so I'm looking for the big mass I've stayed with this same brush and that you've already start to see that this really recedes that this is way in the foreground this is pretty far in the background I think now I'll probably let's let's start working with the the light side [Music] landscape painters love trees it's one of mother nature's greatest gifts to artists but when your trees are wrong your viewer can tell immediately when you're painting trees you're painting a portrait of a tree every tree is different each with its own characteristics and unique colors for something that seems like it should be simple trees can often be a source of frustration composed poorly and the entire painting will be off the mark [Music] so to guide you through the process of understanding how to paint trees we sought out a painter who has done beautiful paintings of just about every kind of tree to really understand how to better paint trees turn to artist Paul Crowder in this instructional video mastering trees Paul will show you how to do just that a longtime illustrator and a plein air painter since 2002 Paul has a strong foundation and design and composition there's nobody better to show you how using strong graphic shapes is a key factor when painting trees paint along with Paul as he shows you his simple and logical system forgiving trees more character he'll show you his steps to make trees easier and use them to create a solid foundation [Music] never again will you shy away from including certain trees because you're just not sure how you'll pull it off your trees will be believable have the proper proportion right light and shadow perfect sky holes and feel like they're realistic in addition to a complete start to finish painting we've included a bonus video with Paul showing you how to paint a variety of individual types of trees because you have to approach them all differently think then again it really is the silhouetted shape that's always important Paul crater simplifies the process of painting trees and landscapes is positive light-hearted teaching style will encourage you to relax gain confidence and have fun with your painting available on DVD and digitally to view on your computer tablet or phone order mastering trees with Paul Crowder today and be on your way to painting better trees and better landscapes that was mastering trees with Paul crater and you can learn more about that at Lille art video.com Paul is really a great guy a lot of fun to be around you're going to enjoy this interview [Music] welcome to interviews with the artists I'm Eric Rhoads publisher of plein air magazine and what we do here is we bring in some of the greatest artists in the world and kind of get inside their heads today we have Paul Crowder who is a California impressionist would you say Impressionists sure okay and and we're gonna get inside Paul's head a little bit so welcome to interviews with the artists thank you nice to meet you finally nice to meet you finally how long have we known each other a long time you know well you lived what ten minutes from me so I did that's where I first met you yes I was out painting in the San Francisco Bay Area so do you remember that day vividly vividly I think I think that day we got kicked off some property into you remember that's happened a couple of times so if I remember it correctly well maybe tell me how you remember was there barren falter so there probably was spirit ball I I think a group of us probably went out somewhere near Mount Diablo to paint a briones Park maybe and I can't even remember Charles White might have been there I think that if I remember correctly California Art Club chapter had a painting event at my house that's correct we did and I don't know if that's the first time we met or not but we lived on Briones Park yeah and so we all went out and painted at Briones but the the time I'm remembering is we had met up in up near where Richard Lindenberg lives I can't remember the the town but I remember there was a barn and a big tree and and it was you me Charles White some other folks and a couple of them went off to paint across the street and a farmer came out with a shotgun and kicked him off their property I know if you remember that I was not the one who they went after but yeah so a barn in a tree yes I have I have painted that they male or yes basically all you I've graduated from there but yes well you're an amazing barn and tree painter I fell in love with your work years ago and and it's really been fun to watch your career because you're becoming Nash we known your work has just exploded your your winning awards and your your selling a lot of paintings and you're in some great galleries so congratulations yeah I appreciate that yeah so how did this all begin for you it honestly the plenary part of it began overnight I was an illustrator on Friday and Saturday I was a planner planner painter so okay so before you go there I want to go way back way back when what when was his first interest in art express I I was always I've always been an artist so I want some kindergarten award through the Chronicle newspaper and I got a key to the the San Francisco Zoo really yeah so you you put the little key and it tells you what the animals doing or something and that was that's been my the best award I've ever gotten you still have it I don't have the key but I I know where it is yeah but so I just drew and paint painted all all my life and my mom and dad just encouraged me they had no really artistic talent per se and and yet they allowed me to do that I loved sports I loved nature and those were the two things that I I would get Sports Illustrated and copy the the cover of that or no Geographic and and then up up through high school it started to get real that I really this is what I wanted to do and when I graduated high school I went to a junior college San Mateo College of San Mateo and got an a a degree and graphic arts and what year would that have been Oh bat back 74 to 76 okay and then I went down to Art Center College of Design in Pasadena that's a great school it's a great school and that made all the difference in the world to me I met my wife there was also known artists at it Pixar Animation Studios and so I was I we graduated in 1980 she went on to work at Disney I was a freelance illustrator for 20 two years so the freelance are the illustration world changed a lot because I hear the story a lot of times from illustrators who you know they're doing illustration by hand and all of a sudden the computer came in and yeah and you had all this clipart and all these other things did that impact your life totally not only did the did my income start to go down because there just were fewer and fewer jobs to be had I thought the prices started going down and so I kind of made a little little diversions and and tried to do some wildlife work for a little while without much success and I started doing some children's books and they didn't there were long term projects they were fun they were usually wildlife oriented and then I hit a home run with a book called the ABCs of the rainforest of the living rainforest and it was a self-penned book so you wrote the book and you illustrate yeah it was an ABC book so yes my my writing was I know I know the 26 letters so a is for what anteater anteater what was B Oh got butterfly Werfel Morpho butterfly but okay well we won't go yeah yeah yeah well I'll do that but I think randomly what was Z would be too easy Azure oh it's a doglike creature from South America really yeah and that the heart hardest one was X there's there's a little brown bird called a xenops and that's that's the one that's that is kind of a tricky tricky one to find now can you find that book still is it around ah it's not you could probably can find it on eBay yeah the ABC you can't even write me and get a copy because I only I have only have a couple left for for you know grandkids when they when they arrive not not that we know of officially so I want to now go to you were an illustrator making a living as an illustrator and you became a plein air painter overnight pretty much overnight or at least my interest happened that way so I went to the very first Sonoma plein air event and that was you know 15 16 years ago and there were a group of Pixar artists that were invited John Lasseter was the one who had was one of the big sponsors so my wife was in the event she would go up in the afternoons and pain a little bit a great friend of mine Bill Cohen was in it Ernesto NIM SEO another fine artist a couple of my friends from the illustration world were in it I went up to my wife goes what do you want to do Friday night would you like to come up you know to this gala you know free wine you know I'll take you up on it always leave it I'll even drive and I I said that's great so we go up for you know this is our date night and honestly I fell in I really did fall in love with the work and I remember going up to some guy and I go how did you there was a little house that was had a pinkish tone to it i standed you come up with that color scheme and how did you you know why did you work in this the area and he goes this was the my focal point and he goes this was the area I knew was gonna change the most because the light and I had to capture that first and I I just thought that's awesome John poun was in the event he won artist choice and he was a student of mine at the academy of art years before so I knew a handful of people I went home on Saturday I went to the art supply store and bought a set of oils and I went out Sunday in the East Bay hills and did my first plein air painting outstanding yeah so we I think we have something in common because I was living out there at the time and I had just discovered plenary plein air painting and I didn't really know anything about it I went my first event attending as a consumer was the scene on the straight and Martinelli yes yeah it was a fun my second event was that event and I don't know if it was first year I think it was the second year I'm not entirely sure I know I remember everybody had these big monet hats that they were yeah I had had it out for the artists or something but the that's when I had decided that I was going to do plenty or magazine I guess I had been painting for a year or two and then because I made my living as a publisher I thought well this is a natural there's all these people so I actually went to Sonoma and I was passing out flyers I do order that for the new and I do I remember talking to you saying this is a great idea I would love you know love to get a magazine that was too focused on on just plein air painting and I do believe and your pain was on that very first that's right first cover that's right yeah so I made a made a dummy cover for my promotional materials that had camille prismatic on it because I had been studying with Camille mm-hmm and then yeah Edgar Paine was the very first cover they sell for about $75 on ebay now because they're hard to find I don't I'm not selling mine I don't like that I don't think I even have one I have the second one but I don't think I have the first and hundred dollars and maybe all you know you could have said a thousand no well I think that so you became you became suddenly a plein air artist now your wife was already a planner artist she wasn't but she's she she used to do backgrounds for Disney Disney films way way back right when we would graduated from art school and that was her first job this interview was about me right yeah okay I will but she a lot of the stuff that she does does it Pixar is are the environments indoors outdoors but really she was much more of a studio painter than than an outdoor painter but for this event she did go up in the afternoon and do these tiny little almost thumbnail paintings and they were neat and I remember having to frame that up for her for the for the gala and the next day but like I said I just fell in love with the immediacy of working fast versus research and Men tracing paper drawings and going to the clients and having stuff approved and so for the people who are watching this maybe have not tried plenty air painting maybe there's studio painters maybe they're just learning what are the benefits of plein air painting the biggest thing is you are out you're outdoors you are seeing it live you are not reacting to a photograph that's holding still and it is you're in you're in the moment and it's nice when it's beautiful out 70 degrees and you're in shorts and a t-shirt when it's cold and you're in Yosemite and the Sun hasn't come up and it's it's 20-something degrees and you're you're shivering there's still there's that moment you're trying to to capture something so it's it's I like it to compare to live music versus studio musician you play life you are going to make mistakes you are you do get a reaction right away from the audience there's no audience watching me paint but it you are working in that in that moment so you can fix mistakes you can make changes but it's it's spontaneous when I first learned plenary painting I had been studio painting wasn't very good at it but good enough that I could make something look fairly decent but when I went outside everything fell apart I remember the first time I went out I took a studio easel out to the golf course a box of stuff a chair card table and easel you know everything and and I took a full-size canvas and it kept blowing off yeah use it and of course there were bugs and other things the light was changing you were an experienced illustrator was it difficult for you to adapt to a plenary at first and I did the same thing I I had two folding chairs just like what were wooden chairs but just two chairs I put my easel there and I actually painted on my lap because I really didn't know better and as an illustrator I painted on a flat top table and I either sat or stood and then leaned over it and work that way so I thought it was natural just to paint on your lap but it was it was hard because you were always looking up and it wasn't that convenient to have this chair and I remember seeing I think it was Jay Mohr I don't even know where he's from had an ADD and probably planner magazine and I liked the setup that he had the easel and I had never worked this way I really had worked always flat and so yeah I remember calling him up and saying you know I love your work I think it's fabulous what kind of easel do you have and he told me what what what he had and I thought it sounds great I was company out of Wyoming and I called him up ordered that made all the difference in the world I did sit for the first year maybe a couple of years and then the one time I couldn't see over a fence I telescope my tripod up up higher and stood to be able to see what I was going to paint and that made a big difference being able to back up and I just thought I'm not gonna set ever again well you know there's no right or wrong I mean a lot of people do sit sometimes I sit just because I'm tired yeah you know especially if I painted two or three paintings in a day I want to do a fourth when I'm kind of wiped out when you're an illustrator I assume you're you're painting kind of tight and maybe you're using wash or something I used a lot of different mediums I start off really as a pen and ink artist and then I I did a little bit of gouache I did a fair amount of watercolor and a lot of acrylic and no oil right so the transition to oil and the transition of standing up your hat your ural a pretty loose painter now you know somewhere in between yeah you're you work doesn't look tightly rendered not that there's anything wrong with that but so what took you there was there a particular method that you learned or way that I think I went from finer round brushes and I don't know what made me I switch to brights which are stubby little flats basically and I just said I'm gonna I'm gonna paint with these I remember making a conscious effort to say I'm gonna be a different artist than I was and as an illustrator yes there's a big learning curve jumping from one medium to well that you can I can't say you can erase but you can scrape down you can layer it it's not like watercolor where you've got to plan your lights and leaving the whites of the paper to show through you really can work pretty pretty fast and you can get two or three layers on there and it it was I was working on wood panels I was just sewing to them and and then sanding them down so they were it was a little bit unique and the brush strokes really showed up especially with those with those brides so you've made your living as an illustrator and now you make your living as a painter I make my living because I'm still married to my wife and I helped pay for vacations and all the other fun stuff that we do but I'm thankfully my wife still works and still loves me so that's what we call golden handcuffs but she has me well that's good it is I'm a lucky she tells me that do you have no idea how lucky you are yes I do you tell me every single day yes ma'am well so you're doing the plein air circuit you're doing some shows I yeah I do a lot I I did a lot and they're fun to travel that they're there it's to go to the East Coast and Peyton in Easton is an awesome experience it's hot and muggy but the the competition is is great and I love I love competing I love that the sport part of me likes it's not I'm gonna be better than you it's I want to paint alongside you and be competitive and I want to do my best work because there's 3040 we know if that event 50 other artists that are all top top artists but st. Angelo plenary event is is awesome Sonoma plein air is is my favorite one because it's local and I love I love that but I'm just sticking around California a little bit more unless the long distance travel so what's your best advice for somebody who wants to break into plein air painting they'll find a pal find a pal if you're going to go out in nature somewhere there's you whether it's your your dog going with you or finding a couple other people to go out but make a point to do it a couple days a week joint joint an art club I'm a co-chair of the San Francisco the chapter of the California Art Club and we have 350 members in our chapter do you really we do back when I was a member there were about 20 of us well there's I'd say there's there's probably a hundred active people and we get 50 or more that show up at a painting event a paint out so those are those are great things to to join and you'll you know there's there's art associations usually in your neighborhood those those are great to join and you know start meeting some people but community is really important and that's why something like the Convention is important because sometimes people have told me that they've come and they have connected with people in their own town they didn't know exist and then they they became part of a community but definitely joining a local community a club or something is really valuable not only because you have somebody to hang out with but because you you are now a part of something bigger yeah and it's you just you feel like you can get a critique from somebody you can you can be inspired by somebody you you find somebody that's that's about your level to hang out with and exchange ideas because usually I'm you know when you finish college and you've had your teachers you've had your fellow students who are all you know in your corner and giving you feedback and stuff all sudden you're out in the real world and almost all artists are really by themselves and so to have some like you said the community is is it's a huge part of it well you know a lot of people are coming into plein air painting in the back end of their career yes I hear from people every day because of the plein air podcast and I hear a lot of people who are in positions in companies and businesses there's a lot of professionals a lot of doctors and a lot of everybody really who they're like I you know I can't wait I got another five years or another ten years and I want to do it and then we find a lot of people who are a retirement age that that want to do it and they love the lifestyle well yeah you know they like to be outside but they don't want to be you know exercising as much as they used to they want to be with other people it's social they don't they don't want to take up golf right they want to travel they want to they want to have something that is using their creative side because a lot of people had that creative side maybe they did some art when they were kids or in college and then they kind of went off to something else there they raised a family or is that reality came in and and maybe their kids have gone away to college and now they're hey I've got this time I used to love to draw or paint and I'm gonna I'm gonna take it up again and we welcome him into the community and by the way I was you know there's just there hundreds of young people too and I was so encouraged I was poking around on Instagram last night and learning about new artists and yeah because I'm always looking for people to feature in the magazine and found just gobs and gobs are really brilliant artists that I was not aware of some of them are you know pretty young and and so I'm and what's nice about this is that as a community when we get together you know you've got every every end of the spectrum I mean last year we had a Kyle ma the faculty who was at 17 at the time or 18 and and then you've got people all the way up and and people in all stages of lives who are attending and and I think that's a beautiful thing you know kind of brings everybody together you know we may not have anything in common otherwise but we have painting in common there's more than that though if it's plenary you also have out being outdoors right and so the two things that you have a love of nature of some sort of open space usually parks and and whatnot so most of us are pretty can be involved with you know trying to save the environment and and being very conscious of environmental causes and so how do you do that what what do you do to save the environment related to painting pick up your trash number one that's what one of my big pet peeves and artists don't don't do that but in our backyard Mount Diablo is this beautiful icon there's a group called save Mount Diablo that I always donate work to their their causes and and stuff and it makes me feel good and it's it's they're trying to protect lands on either side of the mountain so they I won't say so they don't get it developed but maybe that even the projects that are proposed might be lessened and what there might be hiking trails through their property and stuff well and paintings to be used as awareness but also there are groups that are going out and documenting the lands knowing they're going to be developing someday and and now you have these paintings to show the before and after the just the other day that in fact the piece that I'm working on right now for for the for the video a woman pulled over and said do you know about this property and I go no I painted your half a dozen times this side and I'd painted that site another half dozen times she does it it's proposed for big windmills oh no and and so I I kind of feel like I'm I am documenting what's here now and hope and she's going you know we're trying to fight it and and not have this guy put these these huge things but it would be you know acres and acres of this but it also gave me my title for the painting before the winds so perfect about that way and it was a breezy day so I thought okay that's it kind of kind of fit so one one thing I always like to ask is the you know we all have these experiences when we're painting I don't usually sell my studies because they're memories for me because every painting is a memory of being somewhere or being with someone like you but there's sometimes things that have occurred when we're painting that are really memorable does anything come to mind for you a special moment painting or something that occurred that may not have been the norm a good story or or a bad one okay my helicopter rescue over painting Oh is probably probably a most wild one we have a group of artists that we go bill Cohn and myself put a group together called the granite group and for I think we're on our 16th year of going the Eastern Sierras to paint on my bucket list but you want to join our group absolutely no or the helicopter ride is on your bucket list anyway it's a we've had 40 artists and go with this over the years now bill and I are the only only two that have gone every single year and we were coming out of garnet lake four years ago had finished it was a great trip and I still remember telling bill that was awesome we never you know no one's ever really gotten hurt no one's you know we've hardly had a blister we've had a couple of sick artists but that's that's been it and we hiked half a mile out of there were nine miles away from the trailhead and I'm not doing anything stupid it's a really steep trail and I stepped down I started to fall and I put my foot out to stop my fault and my kneecap ended up halfway up my thigh oh and it was crusading it felt like I had been shot which is basically what happened and I'm just lying there and and Suzie Baker was on the trip and she had a satellite radio the first time anybody's ever brought that and they you know she puts out an SOS and make a long story short they a search and rescue had to come and get me and four hours later a helicopter came and they had to drop her did they couldn't even land it was so steep well if you would have not had that satellite phone they would have had I might still be probably yeah you would have survived a couple of winters yeah well and that's Edgar Payne country that's some yes edible painting undeveloped and just absolutely gorgeous it is and it's it's the eye I just saw one recently in fact I think you posted one from iceberg lake and it was a painting I had never seen of his and really I stood right at that spot and he used to change quite a bit of his landscapes he would add if he felt felt like another mountain needed to be over here or a lake that what he painted was exactly what he saw so he wasn't moving things around he didn't on that particular well I don't think it's planar paintings he he moved stuff around but when he went to the studio he was not afraid to say I need another you know Ridge over here or something well that's an important lesson for painters to understand that you can move things you can't yeah people but he did move mountains though so what have we not talked about that we probably should have having fun yeah are you having fun I do I I teach quite a bit I everything I would say everything to me is a joke but our family lifestyle is very light-hearted and my teaching is light-hearted and I I take very seriously what I do but I typically laugh through most of it I have a great time painting and I love being with my friends when we paint we it's always fun when we we start off when we're making jokes and you know or were especially the granite group were god this is so fabulous can you believe this this is awesome and then I twenty minutes later and we maybe we're all chatting if thirty minutes later it's quiet and nobody's saying anything because you're just you're into the moment and you're concentrating on what you're painting so it's a paintings just I'm especially plenty real love and joy for that yeah pretty special well Paul this has been wonderful getting to know you a little bit further and of course we've known each other for a long time but never in the studio - yeah this is great I'm sorry I did not get the memo about wearing a sport coat because I would have brought one but no it's a power thing if I told you then we would be equals but if I have the sport coat on then I you feel I reign over you feel stronger yeah thank you very much it's great Thank You Paulie chatting with you you owe me a margarita though oh I yeah i okay so I'll get you a margarita at the plein air connection all right thank you there will be one waiting in your room with Mike yeah put my name on it it might be melted do you want frozen you want salt and salt in the on the rocks please okay terrific well thank you Paul crater I'm Eric Rhodes and this has been interview with the artist you know there are very few people who can paint trees like Paul crater and he teaches you every technique with lots of different kinds of trees it's mastering trees with Paul Crowder and you can learn more at Lille art video.com I'm Eric Rhodes [Music] landscape painters love trees it's one of mother nature's greatest gifts to artists but when your trees are wrong your viewer can tell immediately when you're painting trees you're painting a portrait of a tree every tree is different each with its own characteristics and unique colors for something that seems like it should be simple trees can often be a source of frustration composed poorly and the entire painting will be off the mark [Music] so to guide you through the process of understanding how to paint trees we sought out a painter who has done beautiful paintings of just about every kind of tree to really understand how to better pain trees turn to artist Paul Crowder in this instructional video mastering trees Paul will show you how to do just that a longtime illustrator and a plein air painter since 2002 Paul has a strong foundation and design and composition there's nobody better to show you how using strong graphic shapes is a key factor when painting trees paint along with Paul as he shows you his simple and logical system forgiving trees more character he'll show you his steps to make trees easier and use them to create a solid foundation [Music] never again will you shy away from including certain trees because you're just not sure how you'll pull it off your trees will be believable have the proper proportion right light and shadow perfect sky holes and feel like they're realistic in addition to a complete start to finish painting we've included a bonus video with Paul showing you how to paint a variety of individual types of trees because you have to approach them all differently and again it really is the silhouetted shape that's always important Paul crater simplifies the process of painting trees and landscapes is positive light-hearted teaching style will encourage you to relax gain confidence and have fun with your painting available on DVD and digitally to view on your computer tablet or phone order mastering trees with Paul Crowder today and be on your way to painting better trees and better landscapes [Music] you

Channel: Art School Live with Eric Rhoads

Views: 30,546

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Id: naaX3hlI9Rk

Length: 97min 3sec (5823 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 14 2020