Step by Step Painting Demonstration

When I took this photo it was a beautiful summer day in Awenda Park, near Penetanguishene, Ontario. The dappled shadows and the mystery of where the path would take me was enticing and an inspiration for a future painting....or so I thought at the time. On reviewing the photo later, it just didn't seem to be interesting or inviting at all!.

A few years went by before I came back to this idea, and I realized that my challenge as an artist would be to convey those original feelings to the viewer. I would have to use my memory more than my eyes.

Before Day One, the canvas was prepared with a wash of colour and wired for hanging on the back. The color wash helps to set the tone for the piece while filling in all the white spaces and the wiring makes for easier handling of the wet painting.

On Day One I decided on the components of my composition - Which trees should be included? Does anything need to be moved? How much of the photo will be used? How will the canvas be oriented?

After deciding to move a couple of trees in the foreground and to simplify the rest, I started with a watercolor pencil crayon. This can be easily corrected with a damp cloth. Then came the fist thin layer of dark colored oil paint - basically still a sketch, but indicating size, shadows and forms of the trees and path.

To create an illusion of depth (on a two-dimensional canvas) a painter needs to resort to trickery! I have a lot of fun wiht this and sometimes can be overheard chortling to myself! We have many tricks including color temperature, contrast, brush size and others.

Here, on Day Two, I have added some pale, soft blue, stokes for some sky that may be peeking through in the background. Over and around those, some pale greenish blue small strokes will represent distant leaf clusters. At this point I also established the round form of the tree trunks by laying in some of the same pale blue on the side that receives the most light.

By Day Three, I am starting to feel it! The slight breeze, the texture of many leaves, the sun poking through.....mmmm!

Now, with various shades of green (mostly cool) on my pallet, I fill in the background , over and around the established tree trunks, being careful to leave some sky color. Some of the distant forest floor is also filled in. I thought a rosy color would help to balance all that green. The path leads to a very light area. This is where I want you to go. This is where the mystery is.

With ever increasing brush size and warmer greens on my pallet, I work constantly coming forward with the leaves. The same is done with the forest floor and the path.

At this point, I can see clearly that I do not like the shape of the path, and the beauty of working with oils is that you can change things. I also want to change the rosy color to something warmer.

There! On day four I reworked the path to a more pleasing shape, and changed the forest floor to a warmer tone. It felt much better.

At this point the little details needed some attention. The underbrush in the distance was darkened, the forground trees were given shape with highlight, shadow and midtone, the small tree in the mid forground was given the light it deserved and a few horizontal branches were added for interest.

I signed my name.

Okay. So this was a week after day five. Sometimes it takes patience, many walk-bys while glancing quickly out of the corner of my eye, to see what needs to be adjusted.

In this case I felt that the contrast could be improved, especially the tree shadows.
I went back into the painting and re-established the darks in many places. With that done I put my brushes down. stood back and said, "It is finished!"

"Wandering Through" 30x40 oil on Gallery-wrap canvas

This painting is part of the MacDonald collection. Farlane Lake.