Carrie L. Lewis - Oil Painting: Painting An Autumn Landscape

Oil Painting: Painting An AutumnLandscape

Classic Oil Painting Series

Carrie L. Lewis

Published by Carrie L. Lewis at Smashwords.

Copyright 2014

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoymentonly. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people.If you would like to share this book with another person, pleasepurchase an additional copy for each recipient. If youre readingthis book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for youruse only, then please return to your favorite ebook retailer andpurchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work ofthis author.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Painting a believable landscape is one of themore challenging painting tasks most artists face. Some avoid italtogether by specializing in portrait work, still life painting,or other subjects that minimize the need to paint landscapes.

I knew from the very beginning that I wantedto paint horses. From the first paint-by-number sets, that's what Idid. I think I painted every paint-by-number at least once if itfeatured a horse. Some of them, more than once, although I changeddetails second time.

The landscapes in most of thosepaint-by-number sets were minimal at best. A lot of those paintingsfeatured plain backgrounds of solid colors or landscapes that werelittle more than sky and grass and maybe a tree or bush. Nothingspecial.

That was all right with me. I wanted to painthorsesnot landscapesand my specialty has always beenup-close-and-personal portraits. No need for detailed or expansivelandscapes.

Then I moved to Kansas and discovered theFlint Hills. My first thought upon seeing the vast open spaces andhills was, I have to paint this. With or without horses.

That led to a personal painting challenge topaint one art trading card-landscape everyday but Sunday for oneyear. Thus began my crash course in landscape painting.

I learned a lot that year and painted a lotof landscapes. Water. Trees. A mountain or two. Daylight. Night.Dawn, sunset, rain, snow, sunshine. And, of course, the FlintHills.

It didn't take long to discover that mylandscape painting skills were inferior to my horse paintingskills. It didn't take much longer to discover I could improve myskills just by painting.

The landscape featured in this book isn't oneof those paintings, but it is a direct descendant of that crashcourse. Every landscape I paint these days can be traced directlyto that ACEO (Art Cards, Editions and Originals) challenge and myfirst glimpse of the Flint Hills.

This book is the first in what I hope will bean ongoing endeavor to present the lessons I've learned inlandscape painting. If just one artist can learn to paint abelievable landscape because of this book, I'll be happy.

I hope you enjoy this book and are helped inyour personal painting quest. Although I focus on the landscape,the methods, tools, and tips you're about to read can be used withany subject and in almost any style.

So read on. Feel free to pick up paint andbrush and paint along with me.

And, most of all, have fun!

Best wishes and happy painting,

Carrie L. Lewis

Choosing a Subject

The inspiration for this image is aphotograph taken many years ago. Rodeo rough stock pastured in thisfield, so I made frequent trips past this pasture and the othersowned by the farm, just to look at the horses.

In the back of my mind, I always knew I'dpaint the rodeo horses. Maybe do a series of rough stock images. SoI collected photographs of landscapes, rodeo horses and bulls, andanything else that seemed appropriate over the years.

But it was this image, with the combinationof looming weather in a pale autumn sky and the golds and browns ofautumn grasses that finally prompted me to put brush to canvas. Thehorses are secondary to the feel of brisk air, warm sun andincoming weather. So secondary that when I revisited the subject asecond time, then a third, I left them out altogether.

I made some changes to the landscape, butretained the basics of dry grass, pale sky, and dark clouds.Although I've painted this scene twice as small format paintingsand at least that many times as ACEOs, and although no two areexactly the same, these basic elements have remained so faithfulthat there's no doubt that the scene is the same in each one.

When you choose a subject, choose one thatholds some special interest. It could be the lighting, the contoursof land, the combination of sky, trees, and land or water, orsomething of personal significance. It's much easier to spend timeon a painting if you care for the subject. You can paint somethingyou really don't have an emotional response to, but others willknow when they see the finished painting.

Choosing aPainting Surface

The permanence of your artwork depends asmuch on the surface you paint on as anything else. A good qualitycanvas or panel will make it more likely that the painting you putso much time into will last for years and possibly generations.

You have many choices in type and style ofpainting surface. Following are a few of the more popular.

• Stretched Canvas

• Canvas Panels

• Wood Panels

• Other Supports

Some supports designed for other mediums workvery well for oil painting, too. I've seen exquisite oil paintingson sanded pastel boards, gessoed Masonite panels, watercolor paper,and sand paper. Each one requires you handle the oil paint a littledifferently than you might be accustomed to, but it can bedone.

Preparing thePainting Surface

The first step in the painting process ispreparing the painting surface. If you use any of the many popularcommercial supports, you probably won't need to spend timepreparing the surface. Most commercial supports, whether stretchedcanvas, canvas mounted to panels, or panels, are ready-to-use. Theonly thing you really have to look for is whether the preparationis oil based or acrylic based. Both oil-primed and acrylicprimed-supports can be used for oil painting. They behave very muchthe same. The primary differences are in the feel of the canvas orpanel and in the cost of it. Oil-priming produces a more silkyfeel, but is generally more expensive than acrylic priming. Acrylicprimed canvases and canvas panels are available in a wide range ofstandard sizes. Oil-primed canvases and panels are usually morelimited in size.

Make sure to check the labels when purchasingcommercial canvas for the type of priming used for the support youwant to buy.

When I began painting, I used ready-to-useacrylic primed stretched canvases. Over the years, I've usedready-made acrylic primed canvas panels, hand stretched canvasesmade of oil-primed linen, and Masonite panels hand prepared witheither straight acrylic gesso or with a mix of 50% acrylic gessoand 50% modeling paste. Each one served its purpose well and theonly difference I could see was in the smoothness of the surfaceand in the cost. So after trying as many options as appealed to me,I finally settled on the option I'm about to describe as the bestblend of usefulness and cost for my style of painting.

The moral of that paragraph is that you, too,should try the available options to see which one works best foryou.

My preferred support is Masonite. I usequarter inch panels, which I buy in four-feet (48 inches) byeight-foot (96 inches) sheets at a local lumberyard. I have thepanel cut into standard sizes at the lumberyard, a service that isoften free or very low cost. A full sheet can be easily cut intofour 24x48 sections or into a variety of other standard sizes withlittle or no waste. You can take the panel home uncut and do thecutting yourself, but the smaller sections are much easier tohandle and store and it's worth it to me to have someone withexpertise and the right equipment do the cutting.