Impressionism: Paint this French landscape in Oil or Acrylic

Here we examine our reference photo and decide how we want to redesign and improve it. We practice with a few small thumbnail sketches, then select a favorite, then do a slightly more detailed exploration sketch.

We now use the reference photo as well as our redesigned composition sketch to do a small study in charcoal. This helps solidify the changes we made to our scene, as well as study the values and how to group them together. Doing these kinds of initial drawing studies will save many hours of painting later.

Here I perform the underpainting, and discuss how it relates to the Preliminary Drawing Studies we just did. I discuss the simplified color palette we use during this stage.

Here we create our lightest values by wiping off wet paint, and by doing so we finish our underpainting which will serve as the solid foundation for the rest of the painting.

Here's a brief tutorial on how to clean your palette and brushes, since I had so many students who asked me how to do this. Apparently it's one of those basic things that some art instructors don't show their students much, so here you go!

Now with our full color palette, we begin painting the landscape from back to front, beginning with the sky.

Here we add color and light to our clouds and sky.

Now moving forward in our landscape, we paint the distant lands and hills, and even add a glowing lake.

Now we paint the masses of trees the frame our little country house.

We finally get to paint our cute little French country house.

Moving forward in our landscape, we paint the green fields of grasses, and improvise some flowers sprinkled around to add interest and to help show distance.

Here we finish our painting by adding a foreground of grasses and fence posts, intentionally designing a "path" into our painting for our viewer.

Here we summarize the entire painting process, from charcoal sketch to the last brush stroke. We also touch again on several concepts utilized during the painting.