How to Begin a Landscape Painting in Oils
In this free oil painting video lesson by artist Dick Ensing you will learn a method for starting a landscape painting using oil paint. This is not the only way to start an oil painting, but it is an excellent method and one that every beginner should become familiar with.
The artist will be working from a photograph of a scene in Tennessee. He will begin with a value sketch using only one color, Cerulean Blue. He is using Charvin Oils for this particular lesson. He says he likes these oils because they have excellent pigment strength and when they dry, the color is very close to the color you start out with. He also points out that he likes to work with flat brushes with long bristles. He says the longer bristles last longer and they give you a nice chiseled edge to work with while you are painting.
He very lightly begins to sketch in his composition using the Cerulean Blue. He is just looking for shapes at this point. While he is laying out his composition, he is careful not to place his focal point directly in the center of the canvas as this will produce a boring painting. He places his focal point off to the left of the center.
Step by Step Oil Painting Demo by Mike Callahan
About Mike
Nationally recognized, award winning artist Mike Callahan is a fourth generation Nevada native who counts himself privileged to grow up in what he believes to be one of the most beautiful places on earth, the eastern Sierra Nevada mountains near Reno, Nevada where he still lives today. While he has been painting since childhood, he has only been painting in earnest for about the last 5 or 6 years.
Says Mike, “The topography of this area is simply phenomenal; one can go from the high desert to mountainous alpine settings in less than an hour. It is this beautiful and varied landscape that ends up being the subject for a vast majority of my paintings.”
However, if you look through the paintings on Mike’s website, you will quickly see that the Sierra landscape isn’t the only subject Mike typically paints. He also enjoys painting Western themes as well as figurative and portraits.
Landscape Oil Painting Demonstration – “Truckee – Early Spring”
About Mike
Nationally recognized, award winning artist Mike Callahan is a fourth generation Nevada native who counts himself privileged to grow up in what he believes to be one of the most beautiful places on earth, the eastern Sierra Nevada mountains near Reno, Nevada where he still lives today. While he has been painting since childhood, he has only been painting in earnest for about the last 5 or 6 years.
Says Mike, “The topography of this area is simply phenomenal; one can go from the high desert to mountainous alpine settings in less than an hour. It is this beautiful and varied landscape that ends up being the subject for a vast majority of my paintings.”
However, if you look through the paintings on Mike’s website, you will quickly see that the Sierra landscape isn’t the only subject Mike typically paints. He also enjoys painting Western themes as well as figurative and portraits.
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