4
INCREASE SATURATION
The hill on the right is in the
middle distance, so still not a
saturated green, it’s quite grey and
blue. You can also see how warm
those shadow areas are – a lovely
fudge brown colour, very rich.
The river is a wonderful thing to
paint. I like to keep brushstrokes
horizontal to suggest reflected surface
light (in this case, a blue sky that gives
way to the darker colour of the river
lower down) and paint the shadow
areas cast by the trees in vertical
strokes. This seems to differentiate
them enough from each other to
create a nice three-dimensional effect.5
DIRECT YOUR STROKES
The foreground went in last and
the greens are pretty saturated here.
I tried to describe the surface of the
green field on the right by holding my
brush at an angle just off horizontal,
as that’s the direction the land
seemed to fall to my eye. All these
little observations help describe a
scene and give a rhythm to otherwise
flat areas.
After every piece of the board has
been painted, I go back to each of the
earlier sections and add extra marks
or more direction to the trees using a
dry brush. Doing this can smooth out
certain areas and fluff up others to
describe the form in more detail, as
well as adding dynamics.
Finally, I made sure all the edges of
my shadows under the lines were soft
before signing the painting.
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