How to start landscape painting - Part II

by Tissa Hewavitarane

There is nothing more thrilling to the beginner-painter than going out to the countryside or village to paint for the first time. There are scenes everywhere just waiting to be painted. But everything seems so vast compared to one's little canvas or drawing sheet, and there is so much interesting subject matter available that it is difficult to decide what to paint.

My suggestion is to make a small view finder, similar to the ones that photographic slide come in, only perhaps rather larger to act as a frame (see sketch). Holder the viewfinder in front of your eyes straight into the area that covers your view and draw and paint what you found through the frame.

Capture

By this way, you may take only the important idea or the picture you want to capture for your painting. Beginner artists tend to try to include every detail of what they see. This impossible! who has the time to spend hours drawing or painting one tree? You can leave exact copying to a camera.

What you must aim to do is simplify what you want to draw. You have lot of freedom. You can remove unwanted trees or buildings, or lamp post, change the way a river runs or road or pathway or put in features that will improve and give life to a picture. By this you learn step-by-step the quickest way to reach a very high level of skill.

Develop your own style. You can use your own ideas about how to create shading. We all are different and express ourselves in our own way. Look for pictures as you go about in your daily travels such as parks, pretty gardens, golf courts and all kind of beautiful spots will provide possible pictures. Part of being an artist is knowing how to look for correct subjects.

Self-discipline

The more you draw the better you become. We all know that, but success requires self-discipline too. We tend to take the easy way (short cuts) and expect to succeed without putting in the drawing hours and the result is this works against us when learning a skill like drawing.

To improve your skills keep a small sketch pad with you and force yourself to draw scenes within easy reach. If you can't get about use photographs, old greeting or Christmas cards and so on. Observe carefully the painting shown here. A landscape drawing is a construction job. Different parts may be put together.