elements of landscape guidleines
DESCRIPTION
some guidelines to help in the development of ideas for landscape paintingSTRANSCRIPT
Elements of Landscape
A guide to improve landscape paintings
• Landscape Painting Tip No 1: Don't Put Everything InYou're not obliged to include everything that you see in the landscape you're painting simply because it is there in real life. Be selective, include the strong elements that characterize that particular landscape. Use the landscape as a reference, to provide you with the information you need to paint the elements, but don't slavishly follow it.
• DECIDE ON YOUR VIEWPOINT • Spend time wandering around a landscape that you wish to paint considering the viewpoints. Don't go with the
first viewpoint that presents itself when you step out of your car!• Photo © 2009 Marion Boddy-Evans. Licensed to About.com, Inc.• The very first decision is where you're going to stand to paint or sketch the landscape, what your viewpoint will
be. It may sound obvious, but all too often people simply go with the first option that presents itself rather than wandering around a little considering the options a landscape presents. Where you stand in a landscape influences what you see in it and the angle you're seeing things.
• The photos show the same little bay, one taken from the car park and the other from the bottom of the slipway. There are obvious differences in what you see (the fishing hut, the boats, the lifejacket post), but also elements you might not have noticed had you not actually walked down there. For instance, that you see more of the cliff-face from a viewpoint that's only a little closer to it. That the lower viewpoint gives the rocky shore far more prominence, as well as reflections in the water.
• Using a viewfinder makes it easier to consider possible compositions. The next step is to decide on a format.From About .com
• Landscape Painting Tip No 2: Use Your ImaginationIf it makes for a stronger painting composition, don't hesitate to rearrange the elements in the landscape. Or take things from different landscapes and put them together in one painting. (Obviously this doesn't apply if you're painting a famous, readily identifiable scene, but the majority of landscape paintings are not of postcard scenes, but rather to capture the essence of a landscape.)
• The format of the canvas you decide to paint on has an influence on how much of the landscape you'll be able to include. Ideally you'll have canvasses in several sizes and proportions so you can choose what will work best, rather than having the shape of the one canvas you've got available dictate to you.
• Spend a little time doing some thumbnail sketches of possible compositions. You may stick with your first thought, but often one idea leads to another, to another, and you can end up with a composition that's stronger. Or with several that will create a series.
From About.com
• Landscape Painting Tip No 3: Give the Foreground PreferenceDon't paint the whole landscape to the same degree of detail: paint less detail in the background of the landscape than you do in the foreground. It's less important there and gives more 'authority' to what's in the foreground. The difference in detail also helps draw the viewer's eye into the main focus of the landscape painting.
• Seasons it is influence the colors in landscapes, as well as the time of day. These two photos are of the same sea peninsula, but look at the different colors! You can't change the weather, but you can decide what it'll be in your painting. Make a decision, and be consistent to it. If you love the scene in different weather conditions, then paint a series.
From About.com
• Aerial perspective is the term used for how atmospheric conditions ("the air") influence our perception of objects in the distance. As objects get closer to the horizon (or further away), they appear lighter in tone, less detailed, and bluer or cooler in color.
• As a basic 'recipe' for applying aerial perspective to your landscape paintings, think
• Foreground = Normal • Middle Distance = A Little
Lighter in Tone and Bluer • Far Distance = Much
Lighter and Bluer
• An easy and effective way to create the illusion of distance in a painting is to include an element of a known size that gets smaller into the distance following the rules of perspective, such as a road, railway, or as in the photo at left, a bridge. We know, instinctively, that the road is the same width along its entire length but that the further away from us it gets the narrower it appears. Thus seeing a road doing this in a painted landscape registers as depth in the painting.
• Was your choice of landscape or portrait or square canvas a conscious one, or did you merely pick up the first one that came to hand? Depth or distance is easier to perceive in a wide landscape format rather than a narrow portrait format. Effectively the width of the canvas allows for more components of perspective to tie into the horizon line (the obverse to this can produce a very striking effect ).
The Basics of Landscape Composition
• Composition is one of the most challenging yet powerful and exciting aspects of painting. It is the technical foundation of your painting. Without it, paintings visually fall apart. Careful consideration of the composition before putting paint to surface will make your session more enjoyable, and contribute to the success of your painting. Work out your composition early, moving yourself or elements around until the arrangement is pleasing to you. Making major changes and adjustments later in the painting process is much more difficult. All of the elements found in your painting (sky, land, water, buildings, etc.) should be in balanced relationship of scale, shapes, rhythm, pattern, etc. In a landscape painting, you'll look for a foreground, middle ground and background (see my lesson on "Building Your Plein air Painting" for more on this.)
• For more visit Photo Composition Articles
When considering how to paint a sky, we allthink of light, color, and air.
From Secrets of a Modern Painter
Sometimes, because we are painting on a flat surface, we neglect the curvature of the Earth and almost forget that we are painting the inside of a sphere.
You think of foreground, middle ground, and background, but this subtle shift in perception will change everything. Imagine as you are painting that you are moving your brush on the inside curve of the sphere - as if the flat wall of the canvas was a hard outer edge of the planet.
Experiment - if you haven't experienced this feeling- take a large bowl and a brush and paint an imaginary sky on the inside edge so you can get the feeling of what I mean. Move the brush against the bowl, then within the space of the half- sphere. If you can capture the idea of air and light filling the sphere and make your clouds float within it, your skies will improve immeasurably.
From Secrets of a Modern Painter
Don't paint elements of nature - paint the forces of nature in action. A landscape is a collection of events in space-time, revealed by light, interconnected through their suspension in air or bound by gravity to the Earth.
From Secrets of a Modern Painter
More tips on Composition: About.com
Create a sense of passage through one or more areas of the painting. We want not only for the eyes to travel, we want our viewers to experience being there, or relive their own memory of a similar place.
