Lesson 2 Original
We will create a composition with some more details in this beginners course, lesson 2, please see fig. lesson-2-original. What we are going to learn from this exercise is to create more details by having the subject matter closer to the viewer. In this respect we have a tree as the central subject with plantation not too far back. By adding a sloped hill, there is more character to the whole picture.
Fig-2
Let’s start by drawing the outline as we did before in Lesson 1 (fig. 1). The canvas we choose is more of a grayish background so we can add more highlights in the foreground to give more prominence to the main subjects. In this case, the tree with the whiter shades of branches/leaves will be more pronounced, see the original drawing. While still keeping the spray tool, we fill in sections of the background with a lighter shade of grey and begin to paint in the foliage and some tree trunks (fig. 2). Notice that the brush strokes are in no particular manner and basically just filling in background information. Don’t worry about creating too much detail here. The background should be tackled before doing the tree at the foreground as we don’t have to worry about drawing around the edges of the tree.
Fig-3
With the main tree trunk and branches defined we arrive at the painting shown in fig. 3.
Fig-4
We continue to add details including the skeletal branches of the tree, see fig. 4. Notice, how the picture doesn’t look anywhere near the original and this is where we begin our fun stuff of adding highlights and tones to give more depth and realism to the whole picture. If you examine the final painting, you will see that I kept the original color but also introduced some white and black hues to give more substance to the tree-trunks and the rear plantation. The painting is ambiguous as it suggests that the some of the branches are white in its natural form or could be due to snow falling on the branches. This can be further substantiated with the hint of white that has been added to the gentle gradient of the hill as well as the hills in the far distance. This is the kind of painting that you want to produce that keeps the viewer engaged with the scene and keeps them thinking.
