Welcome to Painting

How to Paint Your Own Landscape Painting

When you are just starting out in art painting, either with watercolors, acrylic paints, or oil paints, still life subjects are very popular. The reason for this is that a still life is in a controlled environment with static lighting and a consistent weather. Landscapes are a popular subject for many painters. One reason is that the scenes are often breathtaking, and an artist desires to take on the challenge of bringing that natural beauty to life through a paint medium. However, this is quite different than still life painting as the weather and lightning can change in a moment's notice. Also, scenery and landscapes change day to day as the seasons change.

Another more practical reason for the popularity of landscape paintings is that they sell very well. Many shoppers of art enjoy displaying natural scenery in their homes and offices. Whatever reason you have for wanting to create a masterpiece in a landscape painting, there are a few tips to keep in mind before grabbing your paints and canvas and heading for the hills.

Things to Include in Your Landscape Painting and What to Leave Out

The first rule of thumb in landscape painting in general is to avoid trying to include everything you see in the scene. Just because an element like a barn or a brook appear in the real thing, that doesn't mean that the artist has to include it if it will distract the eye from the true focal point.

Select the parts of a scene that you think will work best in your landscape painting and work from the image that you see. By the same token, you can rearrange elements in a landscape painting, or you can combine parts of a couple of different scenes. Unless you are working on a well-known or easily identifiable scene of sorts, you can create any natural image that you choose.

Add Dimension to your Landscape

A landscape painting is most interesting when it incorporates a foreground with a scenic background. By adding detail to the objects that are closer to the foreground, you will draw your viewer's eye to the focal point that you are trying to create in the scene. Background items can be painted with less definition and detail so that they appear to fade in the distance.

Keep on Painting

Once you have found a landscape that you enjoy painting, it is fun to try to recreate that scene with different light and seasons. The shadows and colors of your landscape painting can vary considerably by looking at the area from different angles and at alternate times of the day and year. To continue to create art from a single scene, snap a photo of the area so that you have a consistent model for your work.

Many artists spend their entire lives in one location painting landscape scenes. You could easily find a favorite place to set up your easel and stool and just sit for hours looking at and painting the landscape. A simple turn of the gaze shows another landscape just begging to be painted. As the day's light changes, so does the landscape offering another opportunity for a unique painting.

Landscape painting can be fun for an artist, because the possibilities are as infinite as nature and the benefit is in spending plenty of time in the fresh outdoors. If you have never tried your artistic hand at a landscape painting, why not grab your canvas and a few different shades of green paint to begin creating your natural masterpiece? Happy painting!

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