Hello, and welcome back to my studio.
This time we're dealing with acrylics.
I'm going to be showing you how to get
a sense of atmosphere and distance in your landscape painting using acrylics.
Now, this comes from a question,
one of the artists in my art school, and Terrie wanted to know how to handle
the atmosphere and sense of distance with acrylic paint.
She was finding that difficult to achieve.
And this is understandable because acrylics is a great and vibrant medium.
But when you need to get that atmospheric perspective and you start bringing white
paint into it, things can go downhill very fast.
Acrylics can really lose their intensity, muddy up very easily,
and it makes that aspect of a landscape painting a real challenge.
So I'm going to be working with this reference and trying to get a very simple
painting done quite quickly, but one that has a good sense of distance.
Looking at how to get those sort
of off white grayish colors in the middle to distant areas of the painting as well.
And also how I use a little technique
that helps to accentuate the sense of distance.
Let's begin.
Now, in having a look at this reference, I want to get an impression of distance as
well as trying to preserve some of the richer colors in the foreground.
So I'm going to just start with dividing the scene up.
We've got to see the different planes of foreground, middle ground and background.
So we see this shadow area right across the foreground, which is very attractive
because it contrasts with the light of the middle ground.
We're going to contrast that.
And then the distance, this entire area of landscape.
Now, you can see the differences between the landscape areas.
Now, the foregrounds in shadow,
but although the color is dark, it's still quite rich.
The shadows are going to have a rich sense of color.
There's not going to be a lot of white paint in the acrylics.
Also, there are hard edges.
You can see very distinct edges.
And also of these trees, of course.
And the bushes and shrubs stand out, okay.
They have hard edges.
Of course the building is a big value
contrast between light and dark, even though it's all still in shadow here.
As we get into the middle distance, the edges get softer.
You can see that quite clearly because everything is in light.
There is a bit more value contrast between those trees and those white trees
and distance, but the contrast is still being reduced.
Go further into the background areas.
It's not only softer edges, but also the darks.
Those darks back there are not as dark as
the ones over here or the ones over here in the middle ground.
That's because of the atmosphere, the depth of atmosphere between us here
and in the distance, a lot more moisture, a lot more particles,
all sorts of things in the air, making edges softer and darks, lighter.
Now, the lights.
Look at the middle ground here.
You got light on the fields over here and a sort of a yellowish yellow ochre color.
But compare the lights into the distant areas there.
They are getting darker.
So the lights in the foreground,
middle ground become darker over the distance and the darks become lighter.
All right, so there's plenty to suggest distance.
There's also the shapes themselves.
Things get smaller.
Smaller trees in the distance,
bigger trees, middle ground, much bigger in the foreground.
So that's fairly obvious.
And obviously also overlapping shapes also help to accentuate distance.
Look at the mountain here in this middle ground.
Much more stronger edges and value
contrast compared to that in the distance that are very blue and misty.
So now, how to get these colors in acrylics?
That's what we're going to look at next,
very quickly, so you don't fall into the trap of killing
the acrylic colors with lots of white paint.
We still want to try and get rich acrylic
color from foreground to background and still get that sense of distance.
So let's have a look at that.
My palette of colors is pretty straightforward.
I'm also painting on some paper, 300 grams paper.
So we're starting off with shadow in the foreground.
And this is one of my tips straight away for getting a more atmospheric or
a greater sense of distance in your painting.
Get a shadow in the foreground.
Create one if you need to.
It is a great way to step into the painting and create some distance.
Notice no white paint in these shadows.
If I do bring in some white paint to just distinguish something very slightly,
it'll be the smallest touch of white paint, just the edge of the brush
to remove a little bit of the transparency in the paint.
For no other reason than that the white paint in acrylics is extremely powerful
and will reduce your vibrancy dramatically.
Now, over here, I have put in a little bit of white with the blue and red.
And now in this little bit of yellow ochre
to cool down an area and still make it look slightly lighter
because of the ambient light coming into the scene.
Notice mixing these desaturated gray colors.
That is a good reason to add a touch
of white just to knock back a color when you need to.
Now, just this area of the farmlands.
It's basically green in shadow, which will therefore be more blue.
So a lot more blue and just a little bit of lemon yellow.
Touch of white,
the smallest touch of white, just to remove the transparency.
Slight value shifts with the darker shapes, as you can see.
Darks in acrylics, pretty much the same as in oils.
Blue touch of burnt sienna or blue
with a touch of red, or green with a touch of red.
Still no white paint.
Mixing up a few versions of a dark green,
one a little warmer and one leaning towards a purple red blue.
Getting a dark purple color
for the shadows in the trees, just blocking that in very roughly.
We'll come back to this later
in the final stages of the painting to complete these trees.
The house is in shadow.
Therefore the whites will lean to blue.
You could add a touch of red to get a bluish violet.
But be careful you don't make the color too warm with too much red in it.
There's quite a lot of shadow in this
house, so it's mostly coolish blues leaning to white.
Of course,
I'll never put pure white straight out the tube onto the canvas.
It must always contain a color.
Warm or cool.
It all depends if there's sunlight on it or not.
If there is no direct sunlight,
the color must lean to the cool shadow range of colors.
All right, now we're getting into these lights.
Now, as we move into this center stage or
middle part of the painting where there is sunlight,
the contrast between the light and the shadow in the foreground
will immediately create a sense of depth and distance in the painting.
Of course, these middle range colors, although they're in sunlight,
they won't be as warm as if they were right in the foreground.
So you start creating your atmospheric perspective right away
by taking the yellows, adding a touch of white,
perhaps adding a touch of blue just to break it slightly.
These yellowish reddish colors in the distant fields.
So the colors will get lighter.
Even the warm ones will not be as vibrant
or as warm as if they were in the foreground.
So you've got to break that color down
with a bit of white and even its complementary color.
So yellows might need a dash of violet.
Orange colors will get a dash of blue and white.
The other thing I'm doing here is mixing the colors fairly cleanly.
All right. You can see these desaturated yellows.
Now those whitish trees are kind of a lightish gray.
Lean it a little more to the red.
So you're getting a warm gray for those white trees.
Not a muddy color.
It's simply a warm gray, kind of a desaturated color.
The hill. I'm also using a greenish color, touch of
blue, yellow, little bit of yellow ochre and white.
More of these kind of pale-ish grey trees.
But I add a touch of red to lean them to pink.
Pink is a good color for the middle
to distant range because reds and warm colors with more atmospheric
perspective become pink as the red dissipates and is replaced by blue.
Now, take careful note.
The color notes I'm putting down are clean
color, although they desaturated and broken down.
I'll put down the clean color note.
I try not to mix acrylics on the canvas.
Mix it on the palette, pick it up, put it down in its correct place.
If the color note is clean, it reacts well with the notes around it.
Kind of like you're putting down music notes.
If you're composing with now,
using a brush and paint, you've got to put these color notes down
cleanly next to each other, and they must harmonize and work together.
Perhaps with oils I do sometimes mix
a little on the canvas, but the oils have a different property,
and you can get away with that a lot more than with acrylics.
Acrylics need to be mixed cleanly and put down as cleanly as possible.
Right into the distant plane.
The colors become cooler and softer,
softer edged, really leaning to the bluish gray range.
Now, the final color in the spectrum as we peer
into the distance will be a vaporous lightish blue.
Even the warm notes on the distant mountains are very desaturated and cool.
Yellow ochre.
Now, I can push those a little for this side of the hills facing the sunlight.
A little touch of red and yellow ochre
with white slightly warmer, but still in its place in the distance.
The grayish blue violet in the shadow plane of the mountain.
So when I'm mixing acrylics to desaturate it, one of the colors I add is white,
of course, and possibly a complementary color.
However, when I add white, I try to add color back in.
So it's take your color,
mix in some white, bring a bit of color back in,
and you get a gradual process of coming to the right desaturated color.
This way, I don't add in too much white and end up with a chalky, cold color.
The sky is very simple, as you can see.
Now, I'm going to start reestablishing the darks with the dark, rich colors.
So the colors now will get a little more
yellow or a little more violet in the deep shadows.
But this clump of trees is quite prominent.
It needs a few more layers, a little more vibrancy within it.
Still keeping the value dark,
but adjusting the darks, because I have lost some of those edges.
So it's not just getting the dark back,
but it's also adjusting the shadows as well.
So in the shadows, we're looking at color temperature.
I'm using some blues just to cool down
and a little bit of opaque color next to the buildings here.
So adjusting color temperature means
you're not really changing the value, just the temperature.
All right, into the details and accents.
Details here, the suggestion of tree trunks.
Got to be careful I don't make them too obvious.
Even here, I'm using a bluish color, but they do stand out.
You can overdo it.
Just stand back and see if you put in too many of those details.
If I put in hard edges in the distance I'll bring it forward.
So I must be careful about that.
Just actually add a little horizontal plane of light there.
Some distant farmland.
See, those distant farm lands become much
narrower as the distance compresses and moves further away.
Shapes get smaller, planes get narrower.
Cool blue shadows under those trees to finish them off.
So pretty much done.
Just a few little adjustments.
I'm going to add a touch of sparkle
and then few little bit of scumbles over here.
This is kind of a focal area as well.
Sign it off, get the tape off and let's have a look at our atmospheric landscape.
I hope you enjoyed that little lesson
and it's given you some ideas to try it in your next acrylic landscape painting.
Don't forget there's a free lesson for you up here in the corner.
Just click on that and of course,
subscribe to the channel so you don't miss another video.
I've got plenty of acrylic lessons as well
on my painting school, so you can find those when you follow the link up here.
Or if you're already in the school, check them out whenever you want to.
Right, that's it.
Happy painting.
Enjoy your acrylic painting challenge and cheers for now.