Painting Fall Colors
Fall is a very special time for landscape artists because that is when we see most of the color. One thing to remember is, the way to make a painting look like it’s full of color is by having gray’s around it. This is really important. The more gray color you have around something, once you put the more pure color on top of it, will make it sing even more. This could also be because of the value of the color. Let’s say if it’s a maple, orange or yellowish maple, you want to make sure you block it in with the darker values. This means more muted, darker values underneath it. Then, start adding your more pure colors on top of that.
Another way to approach this is by using the transparency of the paint itself. This is when you are allowing the canvas to come through. When you do this, certain colors are more transparent than others. The idea is to throw down a medium to light wash or value, let’s say a yellow-orange, and try to minimize how much opaque color you apply over that. The reason is that the opaqueness will kill the vibrancy of the transparent color as the value of the canvas is coming through the paint. Try to put dark value around an area you are washing. You will see how the washed-in area, transparent area, will have more of a glow. This is a really interesting way to approach something where you want vibrancy on it. This works with many colors, seasons, and the studio.
Join me below for my free webinar and video downloads:
If you’d like to listen to topics like this and more, join me on the Concept to Canvas Podcast and the Paint & Clay Podcast