Today Tom was teaching a painting in our Beyond Class.  As soon as I saw him do this simple technique, I just knew I had to share it with you.

Points To Consider:

• Tom looks for shapes in the photo.
• He identifies a pyramidal shape and notices where, in relation to other objects in the painting, it is placed.
• He doesn’t use a green color out of the tube for the trees.  Instead, he mixes almost all the colors on his palette together to get a deep forest green.
• Tom applies paint to the canvas in the shape of a pyramid.   He identifies where he wants the peak to be.
• He paints a dark baseline before he begins.
• He wasn’t worried when he didn’t get the color right the first time.  He knows he can go back and change any color.  He picks up more blue and goes straight into the canvas and mixes with the existing color.
• Once he has the color the way he wants, he uses his Alexander Filbert Brush to make the shapes of the trees.
• He holds the brush in straight like an arrow.  He uses a “sawing” motion to spread the paint upward to give the illusion of trees.
• He keeps his brush vertical and makes straight up and down motions.
• Once he gets the stand of trees the way he wants he shows us what Bill Alexander would do next.  He uses the handle of the brush to scratch in tree trunks.  The trunks show up because what he is really doing is scratching off paint and allowing the canvas to show through.
• Keep in mind the further away something is the more vertical and horizontal it appears.  In real life, some of the trees may have been leaning, but he didn’t paint them that way because the trees are far enough away from the viewer that they would appear straight up and down.

So today’s tip is short and sweet.  We hope next time you paint a stand of trees you will think of Tom’s technique.

Happy Painting!

Laurie and Dawn

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