Art practice: "Blue Skies, Green Hills"

On a Sunday afternoon back in March, my wife cajoled me into painting an acrylic piece. I said 'cajoled' because I was a bit lazy to pick up the paint brush... but she prepared all the paints and palette so I had no excuse.

She practiced on her own piece, and I did mine. For reference, we used one of the paintings featured in the book “Art school: A complete painters course” by Patricia Monahan, Patricia Seligman, and Wendy Clouse.

NLBsearchplus | ISBN: 9780600614135



This was her paint palette (she bought a "stay wet" palette).


I started my piece by sketching the outlines of the hills, in pencil.


The fun part starts: I applied a mix of blue and white to the sky.


Then started on the green hills, working towards darker colours (in Acrylics, you work from dark to light -- but I'm never one to follow the rules strictly):






When the painting was almost complete, I decided the sky needed a touch of gray and some reflection of the green. If not, the sky was a bit too plain looking.


The completed painting. Took about 2 hours, slightly less.


There are several DVDs and books, on "How To Paint", from the Public Libraries. They come with step-by-step illustrations. Check out the "Arts and Recreation" section.

[Also blogged at MyRightBrain.wordpress.com]