The Landscape Painter’s Learning Guide
By: John Hughes-
This week, I will follow up on my article from the last issue, titled “Three Important Skills Every Landscape Painter Needs”. In this segment I begin to explain some of the concepts that were recommended as a map for studying landscape painting. In my workshops, I do this as a power-point presentation, but will attempt to explain it here in a few paragraphs.
As stated previously, there are three main divisions of understanding that the oil painter needs to know, they are:
1- A knowledge of the way light works. The reason this is so important, is because without understanding light, an artist literally won’t know what to do with the paint they are using! This is why art students would often paint plaster casts in monochrome, for a year or more, before being allowed to move on to color in the great ateliers of the art world. The main thing to be learned, is the seven most common types of light, they are: highlight, direct light, half-tone, core shadow, shadow, reflected light and dark accent. (Please refer to the accompanying diagram.)
Shadows come in two types, form shadows and cast shadows, and they each have a characteristic look that is different in some respects from the other. Form shadows generally are lighter, due to reflected light bouncing into them and cast shadows typically display a harder edge; but don’t take that as a concrete rule, always observe your subject first, before painting!
In the case of the landscape, there are three light sources to deal with, sunlight, skylight, and reflected light. Additionally, it would be good to familiarize yourself with diffused light, which is so common on overcast days. This lighting situation obeys the same principles that govern sunlight, but in a much more subtle way. Once you understand the former, it is not difficult to make the jump to the other, but due to space constraints, this could possibly be the subject of a future article.
2- A feel for abstract design patterns, using the three value families: (lights, mid-tones and darks). Generally speaking, the mid tones make up the bulk of the painting, followed by the lights and darks, which are employed to create compelling motifs. Patterns, for our purposes, are defined as (value shapes), which weave in and around areas of the painting, such as the foreground, or other forms. These value shapes should connect in some way, either physically or mentally, to form cohesive arrangements, or paths of travel. Some artists refer to these as super shapes. They can be one or more objects that connect as a single value area. These connections help the artist to avoid a spotty overall look to the painting, known as fractured the masses.
Composition and Design: There are two ways to think about this subject, first as the larger compositional framework and then as the smaller design elements of the painting. Let’s start with the first:
Edgar Payne, in his book, “Composition of Outdoor Painting” generalizes this idea into what he calls “Stems”. This is a rudimentary way to conceptualize the larger composition in an abstract form and is a great way for the artist to visualize the underlying structure of their painting. It might be helpful to think of an armature in clay sculpture, to better understand this idea. Just as the armature supports the sculpture, so does the compositional stem support the overall design of a landscape painting. I won’t go into this idea in any detail, but I recommend this book highly. The one thing I will stress though, is to follow Payne’s admonition on these stems, which is to commit them to memory and not make your compositional framework too obvious in their construction. As evidenced by his writings, Payne’s opinion was that these stems need to be felt, more than spelled out for the viewer.
As to the smaller design elements of your painting, it’s important to note, that the compositional stem, is set at the beginning of the painting, but the designing of smaller shapes and their relationships to each other, doesn’t stop until the last brushstroke is applied to the canvas. This designing requires the artist to be aware of the effects that drawing, color, value, edges and brushwork, play on the overall look of the painting. It’s like a game of chess in a way, one move over here, may have consequences somewhere else! Look for connections of your lights, darks and mid-tones and make them relate as abstract shapes, one to another; this is how design transcends reality and when this happens, art can also happen!
3 - The artist's toolbox of expression: (Drawing, Color, Value, Edges and Brushwork). This is a huge part of the learning process for artists, which comprise skills that may take years to master. Learn them, because they are your means of expression in paint and need to be explored one at a time, in depth, for success. This last category is too large to cover here, so if you like what you are reading, leave a comment at the bottom, and I will try to go into each of these areas with more precision in the future, starting with drawing.
This learning guide, if put to good use, will serve oil painters well in their quest to create exceptional works of art. It is my pleasure to share these ideas with a larger audience. It is so easy to paint for years and not get anywhere, or move very slowly, due to the fact that the way forward is often murky and obscure when setting your own course of study.
On a personal note, in my early years of study, I bounced around from one instructor to the next hoping to pick up a tidbit here and a morsel there, in an attempt to cobble together enough information to make sense of it all. After a long time, it finally took root, but it wasn’t until I really started to teach painting regularly, that I sensed a need to clarify the process for my students. In doing so, I realized that there is a right way and a wrong way to study! Simply stated, the wrong way just takes longer and sometimes artists wind up on a plateau, not knowing where to go next. My biggest desire is that this information, at the very least, will help some of you find the path to more effective learning and attain greater fulfillment as artists!
Until next time, cheers, and happy painting! John-
John Hughes is a plein air and studio artist with over 35 years’ experience. He teaches workshops and classes through the Scottsdale Artist’s School as well as Salt Lake Community College and other venues. He has written numerous articles on painting for Fibonacci Fine Arts Digest, 15 Bytes and now, Outdoor Painter. His galleries include Mountain Trails Gallery, in Jackson Hole Wyoming and Montgomery Lee Fine Art, in Park City Utah. To view John’s work and find out about his future workshops, visit his website at johnhughesstudio.com
