Read the entire FREE script for the Ruakaka Beach
Landscape Painting video:
Introduction
Welcome to Northland, New Zealand! New Zealand is a painter's paradise. In the South Island we have snowcapped mountains, lakes and plains, and in the North we have rolling hills, vast native forests and amazing beaches like this one.
Hiya, I'm Richard Robinson, Welcome to Ruakaka Beach. My home is just 5 minutes over that way. I love painting this beach, so let's get into it.
The Palette
'Archival Oils' by Chroma
'Classic Archival Medium'
Ultramarine Blue
Pthalo Blue
Cadmium Red Mid
Alizarine Crimson
Yellow Ochre
Cadmium Yellow Mid
Titanium White
Brushes
1" Flat Hog Bristle
#8 Signet Robert Simmons Flat
#4 Signet Robert Simmons Filbert
#0 Rigger
What are we seeing?
A vast beach like this is a great place to
see the effects of changing light, the
effects of atmospheric perspective and
sea spray in the air, and perhaps most
notably the effect of linear perspective -
how receding objects get smaller and
parallel lines converge to a point.
Where to Start?
First things first, we need to figure out what it is that we want to paint. I've got a square canvas today
and I'm interested in seeing both the vast expanse of the beach as well as a good sized piece of the sky
and clouds. I'm a little more interested in the beach so I'm going to give that a bit more room on my
canvas than the sky. This means that my horizon line will be just above half way.
Now here's where I
use my artistic licence. Just as it is it's a nice scene but somehow lacking a little in strength. I like the
contrast between the bright beach and the darker sky and that simple design of a darker rectangle over
a lighter rectangle is something I can exaggerate in order to make a stronger design. So I've decided to
make the sky slightly darker to achieve a bolder design and I know that in doing this the beach will look
brighter too - making it feel more 'pristine'. So now I've got a basic plan I can start analysing what I'm
seeing.
How to See...
A technique I use all the time to make it easier to see the major colours, values and shapes, is blurred
vision. I do this by going very slightly cross-eyed - throwing my eyes out of focus and reducing the
scene before me to it's bare essentials. This is critical to understanding a scene for a painting. Don't do
this when looking at your painting though - sure it makes it look better but you can't ask everyone else
to look at your paintings cross eyed.
When you look into shadow areas your eyes compensate for the darkness, making the shadows appear
lighter than they normally are and allowing you to see more detail. The same thing occurs when
looking into light areas - they appear darker than normal, making details clearer. To avoid this
confusion simply look at things 'broadly', with blurry eyes, and try not to peer into areas when you're
assessing them. Remember it's the relationship of a thing compared with its surroundings that
defines it.
Mixing Colours
I keep my palette to a minimum to save confusion. I basically have a warm and a cool version of the 3
primaries, and of course, lots of white.
When I mix my colours I go about it very methodically, mixing darkest to lightest colours. If I can fit
them all on my palette I mix all the colours at once. Doing this means that when I finally start painting I
can concentrate on doing just that, not having to stop and remix colours.
First I break the scene down into it's parts, for this one: Sky, Clouds, Hills, Water, Sand and Dune Grass.
Then I mix the colours for these parts one at a time, darkest to lightest. My first colour is really going to
set the colour palette for the whole painting because everything that follows is measured against this.
Again, it's all about the relationship of one thing to another. Remember though that I've decided to
make the sky slightly darker than it actually appears. I need to get the value of my colours right - that's
very important.
The value is how light or dark a colour is as if it were a black and white photograph. It's
very hard to judge that straight away without some kind of concrete reference for comparison. That's
why it's good to use a value scale like the one in the lesson notes. Judging the darkest value first we
can hold up the value scale against our subject and look through the holes to see where the value
matches our scale. So here it's matches the middle value or number 4 if you count black as number 1. I
want to make the sky a bit darker than that so I'll make the decision to mix my darkest sky colour to
about a number 3 value.
I'll mix 3 values for the sky, not including the clouds. I'll just take some of this first colour and add white
till I get the next value right. Testing that against my sky though I can see that the colour is not right.
My mid sky colour needs to be a bit cooler so I add a touch of Pthalo blue to the mix because it's a
cooler blue than Ultramarine. Adding this dark colour has darkened the value though, so I add more
white to make it lighter. Now the third and last sky colour is the lightest because it's closest to the
horizon where I'm looking through more layers of light refracting atmosphere. So I take from my
second pile and add more white until I get the relative value right. Seems like it needs to be a bit
warmer too, so I add just a touch of alizarine.
In this way we mix the colours for all our objects - with the darkest colour first, then using that colour to
mix the rest of the colours for that object by adding white to get the value right first, then adjusting the
colour to suit.
Now I'll mix the cloud colours - darkest first. We expect the lightest value of the clouds to be white - but
it's not. That's because we're seeing it through the atmosphere. You can find the atmosphere colour
just above the horizon. In this scene it's a light blue and it's tinting everything in the scene - more so as
it recedes from us.
I'm constantly comparing values and hues to what I'm seeing by holding up my paint-smeared palette
knife to the colour in the scene, making sure I hold the knife in the exact same angle and light each
time I check it. If you are comparing colours to a photo, make sure the photo and your painting are in
the same light at the same angle, then hold the colour on your palette knife close to the photo, at the
same angle as the photo.
Note that when you first paint on the canvas the colour will always appear wrong because the colour is
surrounded by white, making it appear darker. Priming your canvas with a midtone can help resolve
this problem.
For the advanced painter working outdoors it's good to note that because of all the strong light outside
you will be seeing your painting lighter than it will appear when you finally bring it inside. You should
try to lighten all your values by a half step to compensate for this.
For beginners, to mix a colour, first use your goal colour's main components. If it's light blue, use blue
and white. Once the value is right (the darkness or lightness of the colour), then ask yourself, does my
colour need more yellow, or red? That is, which way should my colour move on the colourwheel from
blue - towards yellow or towards red? If your colour needs to be darker than your main component
colour - for example a blue which is darker than ultramarine blue from the tube, think about adding a
dark colour which is not black to darken it - try red or alizarine.
* If your colour needs to be less vivid (more grey), add the colour's complement - which is opposite it on
the colourwheel. For example the complement of blue is orange, so if I want to subdue the intensity of
a blue (making it a bit more 'grey') I would just add a bit of orange.
Sky:
Dark -> ultramarine blue + alizarine + white
Medium -> Dark with more blue and white + a touch of pthalo
Light -> Medium with more white + a touch of yellow
Clouds:
Dark -> ultramarine blue + red + white
Medium -> Dark with more blue and white
Light -> Medium with more blue and white + a touch of yellow
Hills:
Dark -> ultramarine blue + red + white
Medium -> Dark with more blue and white
Light -> Medium with more blue and white + yellow
Water:
Dark -> ultramarine blue + yellow + white
Medium -> Dark + pthalo blue+ white
Light -> Medium with more white + a touch of alizarine
Sand:
Dark -> red + yellow + white + a touch of ultramarine
Medium -> Dark + white + yellow
Light -> Medium + white + yellow
Dune Grass:
yellow + red + white + a touch of ultramarine
Running Time:30 minutes Level:Beginner to Advanced Includes:Lesson Notes (8 page pdf document)
with lesson transcript, resource photos, photo
of the finished painting, colour wheel and cutout
value scale tool. File Size: 184mb (5 mins to download - requires broadband)
"...I think the video is terrific. I would compare it to an in-depth article in a magazine or the chapter of a book in the way it feels to take in the information and the condensation of material. Obviously, because there's so much in the episode, I'll view it again and again because I'm sure I'll pick up new things each time.
I'd also add that I'm a very experienced painter, and there was actually some new stuff here for me, especially about how to view a scene (not looking into shadows and light, etc.).
The pdf is also very helpful and really adds value to the package as a reference tool. Oh, and by the way, I liked the finished painting a lot. It really captures the feeling and spirit of the place. Anyway, I'll look forward to more.
All the best, Tom" U.S. More Painting Lesson Comments >
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