Contemporary Gum Tree Landscape     

Acrylic on canvas 

I have often run workshops for casual beginners wanting to paint the contemporary Australian landscape. This step-by-step project is actually made up of photos of the different stages but the photos are from different sessions, different students, and slightly different colour schemes. The steps are mostly the same, just choose a colour scheme that you like and have a go at the layering and texturing techniques. There are so many approaches that a student could learn when painting a landscape, these ones were put together for students to learn and practice the following:

1. An example of using subtle atmospheric perspective to show depth and distance

2. A contemporary approach to painting gum trees

3. An example of using a tertiary triad scheme  (of blue-green, yellow-orange, red-violet) or a tertiary tetrad (of BG, RO, YG, RV)

4. Examples of creating roller and stencil textures to imply features like dry leaves on the ground, etc.

5.a/ To practice using the following brushes: stencil, flats, liner, rigger, fan + a custom-made roller

b/. To practice and apply stencilling, scumbling, glazing and other brush techniques

6. To show a mood, a time of day, a clear source of light and also reflected light

7. To practice showing shadows using glazing techniques

8. To practice painting a landscape with or without a photographic reference (all students had a step-by-step gum tree artwork to refer, but you could use imagination, memory or pieces of photo reference to put together your own composition while following these layers and steps

Contemporary Australian Landscape 1- Project/Tutorial

$10