Loose Impressionist Painting: Tree in the sun Oil or Acrylic

Name: Loose Impressionist Painting: Tree in the sun Oil or Acrylic
Rating: 4.7 (12 reviews)

Impressionist painting - Oil or Acrylic

Created byT Claudiu

Last updated 2/2022

English

English [Auto],

What you'll learn

We will go over the basics of how to prepare for a painting and work our way from blocking in the basic shapes up to really small details;
I will teach you about the three value study and the underpainting, two of the most important steps in the painting process.
You’ll learn to use various techniques to boost your control and overall painting skills and see firsthand the importance of edges in your art.
Impressionism is concentrated on painting light and we’re going to learn to use expressive brushstrokes and smooth gradients to get the maximum impact.

Course content

4 sections • 19 lectures • 2h 53m total length

Welcome1:11
Receive a welcome and follow real-time guidance through the creative process, including the three value study, color mixing, sketching the composition, and first layers of paint in bold impressionist light.
What you need for the course2:02
Prepare a 40 by 30 cm canvas with essential brushes, a palette knife, and a two inch underpainting brush; gather titanium white, ultramarine blue, ochre, burnt sienna and solvents.
Tips for beginners4:09
Explore loose impressionist painting of a tree in the sun using the Alec Primo wet-on-wet technique, with beginner tips on layering, brush size, values, and color saturation.

What is an underpainting1:03
Apply a tonal underpainting to add depth and unity to your painting, using a single burnt sienna coat in acrylic to create contrast and readiness for subsequent colors.
Doing the underpainting1:11
Begin the underpainting by coating the canvas with burnt sienna, thin with water to speed drying, letting earthy undertones guide the value study for the loose impressionist tree painting.
What is a three value study2:07
Master the three value study by mapping dark, middle, and light to define a painting's composition and balance; squint to identify values and block in.
Doing the three value study3:43
Perform a three value study by identifying darkest areas in the canopy, branches, and trunk shadow, middle ground and lighter canopy, and the sky as the lightest value; sketch composition.

Mixing the main base colors11:53
Mix base colors with a palette knife to paint sky, leaves, and a tree trunk, balancing ultramarine blue, burnt sienna, cadmium red, yellows, and greens for saturated and desaturated tones.
Sketching on the canvas3:58
Sketch a sunlit tree in a loose impressionist style, using thinner and linseed oil to map shadows, highlights, branches, the curved trunk, and ground on the canvas.
Blocking in - thin layers8:48
Block in the tree in the sun using thin paint and a three-quarter inch brush, building sky, ground, and branches, while adjusting color and blending layers to establish composition.
Blocking in - thick layers16:39
Block in thick paint to create color variation in the sky and ground, build a light-from-one-side gradient, and begin forming the tree canopy with blue shadows.
First details of the tree7:41
Use a pallet knife to apply color, build textures, shape the tree and canopy with layered light and dark tones, including burnt sienna, then rebuild the darks.
Rebuilding darks in the tree11:20
Master loose impressionist techniques by rebuilding darks in a sunlit tree with bold brushstrokes, blending light and shadow, and shaping edges to enhance the focal point.
Tree highlights and branches24:13
Use yellow ochre and cadmium lemon with a touch of ultramarine blue to craft tree highlights and branches, building contrast against shadow with palette knife and brushes.
Painting the ground16:05
Shape the ground with a darker base that lightens toward the horizon, adding rich color variation with ultramarine blue, burnt sienna, raw umber, and white to create contrast and texture.
Detailing the tree trunk and painting the houses20:00
Detailing the tree trunk with careful value shifts against sky and ground, and adding distant houses with layered color, light, and shadow to enhance contrast and composition.
More detail on the ground14:57
Add more bushes and a darker house with shadows and a fence, then detail the ground and trees with blue tones, burnt sienna, and yellow ochre for a bloom effect.
Final touches21:43
The artist adds bright highlights with yellows and whites, builds light and contrast with a palette knife, and refines edges to convey sunlit mood in a loose impressionist tree.

Requirements

For a similar result, you will need everything mentioned in the "What you need" lesson

Description

This is a paint along course where I also cover tips and tricks on how to create a loose and colorful painting in a modern impressionist style. I chose to paint a simple tree surrounded by just a few elements: the sky, a plain grass field and some elements in the background. This way we can focus on detailing and texturing the painting without working towards tying together too many objects, each with their own values, hue and color saturation.

Painting this tree gives us a lot of freedom to experiment with different textures by using brushes and a palette knife interchangeably.

Trees and other organic elements like bushes help you develop your own style by exploring how the appearance of branches and leaves is given using the palette knife or different size brushes. We are looking to give our art a painterly feel with clear, bold brushstrokes.

The whole course is in real time so you will be able to see step-by-step how the painting is created, not skipping a single streak of color.

Please make sure you:

have at least a palette knife and a 3 quarter inch brush for the process
have some solvent handy. You can buy turpentine or any other solvent from your local art supplier
download the attached reference photo so you have something to compare (print it if possible)

TIP: If you don't have acrylic burnt sienna for the underpainting, you can dilute your oil burnt sienna with a lot of solvent and it will dry a lot faster, even less than an hour if it is thin enough. For this painting it's best to get the coat as opaque as possible but it is a common practice to have the underpainting a lot thinner so don't worry if you can still quite see the canvas.

Hope you enjoy the course and don’t forget to post a photo of your work :). I am really excited to see what your finished painting will look like.

Also don’t forget to follow me for more courses in the future.

Cheers!

Who this course is for:

All skill levels including beginners. I will explain everything I do and, if you keep in mind the beginner tips and techniques mentioned in the course, you will be able to follow along and get a great result in the end;
Oil painters. The painting is done in oils and many of the techniques, while can be done in other mediums too, are primarily oil painting techniques;
Acrylic Painters. I have painted in acrylics for years and I can safely say that you can get a similar result using this medium. It would be more difficult to blend new layers into the underlayers but you can still get similar effects by reapplying both layer colors in small areas and blending them on the spot. All the colors mentioned in the course are available in acrylics as well;
Gouache, watercolor and Tempera Painters are welcome to try, but these mediums are so different, it would be quite difficult to follow along with the course. Still, I would love to see the result and I’m really curious as to how the painting will look in different types of mediums;

Loose Impressionist Painting: Tree in the sun Oil or Acrylic

What you'll learn

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Course content

Introduction3 lectures • 7min

Preparations4 lectures • 8min

Painting process11 lectures • 2hr 37min

Thank you!1 lecture • 1min

Requirements

Description

Who this course is for: