I often think to myself that it would be so much easier if I could a) get excited about drawing buildings (haven’t really tried, but you never know – I might find I love it!), and b) not mind that I can’t see any horizon line. I’m a city-dweller, but I don’t find artistic inspiration in cities – because, honestly, how could cities ever compare with the St-Lawrence river and great big, puffy clouds?
I’ve fallen a bit behind with my landscape studies, and just when I had turned a corner with them, too! At this point, they were getting more and more complicated, and more than one lunch-hour to finish. Even so, I made a conscious decision NOT to fuss with the reflections on the water in the foreground. The result is what I like to call “good from far, and far from good”. I am very happy with the blue shading on those mountains, though!
One aspect of my landscape paintings that I’d like to improve is the sense of space and depth. I suspect that I’m too easily led astray by my crystal-clear reference photographs, such as this one, below:
So of course, this means that I have to do studies! Here is that same scene, but broken down in 3-D lineart…
… then simplified to 4-5 grey values…
… and finally, a detailed value study!
I can’t say I’m %100 satisfied with the mountain in the background, but those foreground trees and that road really pop! Full disclosure: I actually broke my own rule and used all kinds of crazy Photoshop brushes to create the pine trees. The more of these landscape studies I do, the more I move away from traditional media and embrace the digital.
View from the balcony of my step-mother’s cottage in the Laurentians.
If I were to do this piece again, I would make sure to paint the foreground trees with a sharper brush. I know in theory that foreground elements should be clearly defined, and background elements should be out of focus, but I don’t always remember to follow through with that!
A sunny field and some dramatic clouds – a perfect day to spend in the Eastern Townships!
Wow, I struggled with this one. I never felt like I could get the colours right, or the sense of a multitude of branches. I love trees, I love the idea of painting trees, but when it gets right down to it, people who paint trees have the patience of a SAINT, and that’s just not me. Perhaps I should relax my own rules for this project and allow myself to use special Photoshop brushes in order to more easily simulate branches (and vegetation in general), rather than force myself to treat my digital work as if it were real paints…
This was one of the last sketches that I managed to complete during my lunch break at work. After this one, they all got some re-tooling on my computer at home. And not a moment too soon! The monitors at my office are not very well-calibrated (we’re animators, not graphic designers, after all!), so it was a bit of a shock to bring this piece home and realize I can see a lot more of the underpainting than I realized – or that the horizon line is a little crooked!
Ah, but that water… now THAT I count as a success!
AND if you’re camping at Mont Tremblant, and you’d like to score this view for yourself, just book Huttopia (Ready-to-Camp) site #74! If you don’t mind a short-but-steep hill, you can scramble down a little private path to the water’s edge, and then it’s just you and the lake! I must have taken a hundred pictures from that spot in al kinds of weather conditions, so expect to see more Mont Tremblant images in future!
Now THIS was some stunning scenery! We went camping there in the summer of 2018, and everywhere we looked was another beautiful vista. I think I read somewhere that these are the highest peaks in Canada East of the Rockies. Well worth a visit, but keep in mind that it’s a little cut off from civilization. In fact, you’ll lose internet access 20 min. before you’ve even reached the entrance to the park!
With this piece, I began to wonder if I might want to reconsider limiting my Photoshop brushes because there just HAS to be a better way to paint masses of trees. Also, the driver was in need of updating. See how the brush marks on the clouds are all one thickness? That’s because the “pen pressure” option wasn’t working, and that was a sure sign that my Photoshop driver was out-of-date.
That blue-green mountain in the background may be too saturated to make sense, but it just makes me happy!
I love large, dangerous-looking cloud formations that dwarf the countryside. This is definitely one that I would consider re-doing in oils!