How to Paint Landscapes

I like to work from photographs. The main reason is that I can capture the lighting, clouds and shadows when they are just perfect for what I want. If I don't get the picture, a minute later it is gone and I can't remember exactly how it looked when it caught my eye.

For this winter scene, I followed the photo pretty closely except that it was a gray sky which I didn't find very interesting, so I added the pink reflections in the water and carried them through into the snow.

Since snow is reflective because of all the ice crystals, it would make sense that the pink of the sky would not only show in the water (or ice), but also in the snow. This is an important concept to keep in mind as you are painting your landscape.

First of all you want to be sure to carry a color from one area of the painting to another, much like I did with the pink. It pulls the painting together. if you could see the sky in this painting, you can be sure I would have had some pink in it.

The other thing you want to realize is that photographs and real life don't always visibly show all the colors that are really there. You have to have the imagination to perceive them in your mind's eye. I bet if you squint your eyes when you study something you will see some of the other colors.

Try not to copy the landscape photo exactly. Identify areas of interest and position them to your advantage in the composition. Crop the photo to help you focus on what you are looking to put into the painting. Eliminate unnecessary clutter. Identify abstract shapes which would add to the unity of the painting. For example, create a grouping of trees of different heights and widths, into one abstract shape. Normally we tend to paint each tree individually which detracts from the easy visual flow of the onlooker.

A demonstration of how I converted a photo into a landscape painting can be seen at my lens, Landscape Painting from Photo References

They say that everything is not all black and white, and this is true throughout nature. Look at the sky, and you at first see blue and white. Focus a little more on it, and you may see pinks, ochre, grays, and different shades of blue.

In this painting of the sunrise over the Catalina Mountains, you see yellows, oranges, purples, pinks, grays, blues and whites. Actually, these were all in the photos I took. Even in real life those same colors were very visible, but this is usually the case at sunrise and sunset.

This painting is a composite of several photos I took. I decided the foreground would be very boring if I left it dark like it was in the photograph.

What did I do? I took pictures of water in another place, moved it into the foreground of my painting and then created the reflections to carry the colors down from the sky into the water in front of the mountain.

Sometimes you wish things were black and white and varying shades in between,when trying to group color values together, or to get the right value. Converting your photo to gray scale in a photo editing program on the computer, can help you visualize the values much more easily. Out in the field, or if you don't have a photo editing program, using a red transparent film over the area, will de-saturate the view and make it easier to identify values.

I use photographs to frame in my potential landscape . If you are a person that prefers to paint from the actual landscape, plein air, there are ways to frame in your scene to get a good feel for what you want to paint.

Some people carry a cut out rectangle (a cut out mat board works well) so they can move it around the view until they see the composition they want to paint. Of course the old alternative is to just frame it in with your thumbs and forefingers.

Doing either of these things will help you visualize how you want to place things in your painting.

• Is the sky the main focus as in some of my photographs of storm clouds,so the horizon is placed low on the canvas?


• Are the rolling hills with the barn high up on the hill the main focus so the horizon is placed high on the canvas?


• Is there a balance of interest between the sky and land so that you want the horizon just below or just above the middle?

These are all decisions you can make before you start the painting by framing in the landscape mechanically until you see exactly what you feel is the best composition.

This is actually what I do with my photography. I'm so thankful that they invented digital cameras. Before then, I would take 24 pictures, get them developed and then throw 60% of them away as unacceptable.

At least doing plein aire painting, you don't have to wait for the photos to developed. You just start painting as soon a you are satisfied with what you see.

Oh, by the way, I have so many reference photographs on varying subjects, that I am giving some of them away free for people to use in their paintings.

Right now you can get some free cloud photographs at
Free Cloud Photos for Artists

Now that you have seen some of my work, I'd like to share my pathway through the learning process which brought me to this point. I hope I don't bore you too much with my reminiscing, but there were some pretty neat things and people that brought me to this point.

My first experience with painting, or maybe I should say drawing, was when we got our first television, around 1950.

My favorite show was John Gnagy teaching you how to draw. How exciting was that? You could watch him for a half hour and come up with an acceptable drawing.

You learned to draw landscapes, animals, people, and whatever else, using the basic shapes, circles, squares, triangles and cones.

My parents saw my enthusiasm and bought one of his illustrated books for me, so I could practice what he was teaching.

Would you believe it! A friend of mine found old recordings of his shows on YouTube. Boy did that bring back memories. I'll give you the links for those of you who are nostalgic like I am. He also has a lot of good tips.

When my parents realized I had some "talent", they started buying me Paint by Numbers. Would you believe? You can still buy them today

At the time I didn't realize it, but it was teaching me how varying the darkness and lightness of the colors was what gave everything shape and depth. It also helped me develop the concept of distance in a landscape; things fading in the distance so to speak, and getting smaller.

I guess in my list of visual learning things, this would fall into Live Workshops. I just had to depend on myself to be the instructor, along with the numbers that gave me a clue as to what to use.

This painting, by the way, was not Paint By Numbers. I did it in acrylics from a photograph a good friend of mine, John Horanzy, sent me. It was taken along the Raquette River in Colton, NY, part of the northern Adirondacks.

I've painted most of my life, but took a little detour for 40 years to be a physical therapist.

Any chance I got, I looked at art book that were teaching skills, My life was just too busy at the time, but I can remember thinking, "WOW!" so that's how they do it. Someday, I'm going to try that.

I did take one year off from work when my son was born, and I took advantage of nap time to paint with acrylics. I got some good illustrated books and started teaching myself about acrylics.

At one point I did have a chance to take a live workshop in the adult ed program at the university in town. It did help me understand more about the characteristics of acrylics.

My only downfall was that the subject of the class was painting a human model. For some reason, I just couldn't get the face or the body of that poor women to even closely resemble reality. It must have been the acrylics!!

Years later I painted a portrait of my husband who had just recently passed away, and I totally accomplished catching every glimmer of life I remembered in him. I used soft pastel pencils on velor paper for that. It was as simple as putting in the shadows and the face magically appeared.

During that same year I had off, I had a neighbor who painted with oils. She started teaching me about oils because she felt that true art could not be done in acrylics.

The only problem was, she scared me so much about having to understand oils, drying times, what can go over what, and so many technical things, that I decided to stick with my acrylics.

Thank God for PBS. Suddenly there were all these great painting shows on several times a week. I could usually catch one of them on a weekend, or record shows during the week.

My favorite, of course, was Bob Ross. His specialty was teaching you how to paint landscapes.

It was then that I learned to use Oils. I didn't need to know all that technical stuff. He could do a painting in a half hour and put wet paint over wet paint and used it to his advantage.

I just looked up on YouTube to see what I could find on him, and most clips were spoofs of him except this one which I think you'll enjoy. It is a Tribute to Bob Ross.

In 1998, I got a chance to take a pastel course given by the Parks Department at our community center. I was semi-retired so I had more time to enjoy painting. I had never worked with pastels, but the teacher introduced me to pastel pencils.

I had always wanted a paint brush that would keep a point, because I was such a detail person. Here suddenly was an art tool that fulfilled my wish. My very first painting using these pencils was "Hummingbird's Delight...and mine too!

And with that little informal class, I found the thing I wanted to do in my retirement,

Now I paint, I sell prints of my work (I hate to give up the originals. They are all on my walls). I teach art to a really fun group of people. And just recently, I have released my first How-To DVD, Painting with Acrylics, which you were able to preview earlier in this lens.

One of the newest things I have been doing is meeting up with other artists on WetCanvas.Com There's so much information on the site in all different mediums and it doesn't cost you anything but your time. The forums of great for asking questions and sharing information. Check it out.

If I have wet your appetite for painting, please go to my web site, www.filarecki.com There is a lot of good information throughout the site along with more samples of my work.

It will give you information for ordering the DVD, Painting with Acrylics: Sombrero Peak.

It also links to two free offers I am making:

• one to give free help to individuals having a specific problem in their painting ands to use
• two, free reference cloud photos I have taken which I am giving artists the right to use in their paintings

I have written some Ezine Articles and HubPage Articles that may be of interest to you.

I just looked at the title of this article and realized that I sort of drifted away from the subject. The DVD definitely shows you how to paint a landscape, but I guess I'm going to have to work some more on the article to give you what you expected.

I promise I will.