Farming Landscape, mixed media on canvas 24 x 24 inches Click on image to purchase original or print
Sometimes when starting a painting I have a clear idea of what I want it to look like when I am done, sometimes it is just a process of trial and error that will last until I am satisfied with the result. This painting is one of those.
Landscape mixed media painting tutorial : Farming landscape
Here are some of the steps I took during the making of that mixed media landscape.
I prepare my canvas with an absorbent ground paste as I want to try to start my painting with gouaches.
Once the ground is dried, I draw a simple pencil outline, I made up a landscape from taking elements in 2 reference pictures and mixing them up.
I start with some washes of gouache.
I am spraying some alcohol to add texture to those washes.
I start layering acrylics with opposites colors, for example the yellow-orange fields are painted in blue, blue sky ion yellow, trees in red…
I add a wash of gouache on the sky area
I start to add washes of acrylic with local colors.
still adding washes of acrylics. Then I work with dry pastels, fixing them with workable fixative.
Then I add layers of very diluted acrylics to get a wet look.
Still working by adding layers of acrylics and pastels, I don’t like the barn anymore on that painting as I feel it looks too cliché and is not needed in the design, so I decide to paint over it
I paint only trees where the barn was, continue working on the layers of acrylic and pastels. I want to increase a bit the contrast and make the colors more vibrant
The final painting: Farming Landscape, mixed media on canvas ( 24 x 24 inches)
Originally from France, I have been living in North Vancouver, Canada for the past 20 years.
My work has been collected and exhibited extensively in Canada and internationally. I am also part of the Art Rentals and sales program of the Vancouver Art Gallery.
Many of my paintings have been published in Art books and magazines (Artist Magazine, Watercolor Artist Magazine, Acrylic Magazine, International Artist Magazine). I wrote 2 art instruction books with North Light/F+W Books.
I have been writing for the last 5 years for my blog: paintingdemos.com, that has a mailing list of about 10 000 subscribers and about 20 000 visitors per month.
I am an active member in the community, as a co-founder of the North Shore Art crawl, a co-founder of a weekly life drawing group, a board member of the North Vancouver Arts Council, and have been invited as a juror for public art, art grants and juried exhibitions. You can read more about my collaborations here.
I love seeing/reading how you want about this. And I really like your final image. The trees remind me of people on a march. I like that you took the barn out too. Made for a more interesting work, I think.
Comments (4)
lesliepaints
I like the contrast in the designs of the different field spaces, Sandrine. Whoops! There went that barn! What fun!
Sandrine Pelissier
Yes, it is fun to change your mind in the middle of the process 🙂 Thanks Leslie!
KatiesCameraBlog
I love seeing/reading how you want about this. And I really like your final image. The trees remind me of people on a march. I like that you took the barn out too. Made for a more interesting work, I think.
Sandrine Pelissier
Thanks Katie, I liked it way better without the barn too 🙂