Bill used to take his students on trips into the mountains around Aldergrove. Sometimes he would allow them to take a sketchbook. Most times he wanted them to just observe nature. All the great masters did this. Leonardo's notebooks are full of sketches he made while traveling around the countryside. The great English artist Turner did the same. When you have an intimate … [Read more...]
“…oh, God, what a life!”
All of Bill's paintings told a story. We've already discussed the importance of story in your paintings. You want your paintings to sell? Make sure they tell a story. It's what makes them interesting to your viewer. In this clip Bill adds a bit of detail to the rocky ledge and tells the story of what he sees in the painting. … [Read more...]
Fan brush mastery
Bill continues to lay in his foliage foundation layer - lots of dark. Highlighting will come later. Watch Bill's brush stroke at the :12 - :13 second mark. Notice the (very) slight sideways movement? Notice how that stroke adds just a tiny bit of detail to the tree? Bill is not just slapping paint on the canvas. He's "molding" it. And he's doing it with the same brush - no … [Read more...]
Happy fan brush tree
Time to start filling in details in the foreground. Because the tree is still in the distance, Bill uses the fan brush to lay in the basic foundation of the tree. Notice how dark he shades sap green, which is already a darker green than phthalo green. This will provide a remarkable contrast when he, later, begins to highlight the tree. Please notice two things about the fan … [Read more...]
“…without dark there is no light.”
Bill often makes this comment during his videos because it is so important and so basic to great art. In order to create the illusion of light in your painting you often have to surround it with dark. This was called chiaroscuro by the "Old Masters" and Bill understood not only the term but the technique. If you look at some of his candle paintings, you can see his mastery at … [Read more...]
…the mountains talk to you.”
Bill now works on the shadow side of the closest mountain. He uses exactly the same technique when highlighting with white. We're going to let you in on one of Bill's secrets. We've talked before about keeping your base mountain layer thin. You can see Bill did that with this mountain. Bill's secret, though, was to work on another part of the painting while a different … [Read more...]
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