Layout & Design for Simple Paintings

Part 1 of the "Simple Paintings" Video Lessons

1.   Create simple design with a complicated color palette

2.   Start the design with compressed charcoal on a gessoed canvas

                              a. shape the tree near the center of the canvas

                              b. pour mixed medium onto your palette and apply onto the charcoal design with a wash brush to create "black paint"

3.   Add the shape of the background and foreground with compressed charcoal

                             a. try to point the subject, background and foreground towards a vanishing point

4.   Take a brayer roller and load it with a mid-tone oil paint

5.   Cover the tree design and background using the loaded roller

6.   Brighten the mid-tone paint with white and/or lemon yellow

7.   Load roller with the brightened mid-tone and cover the the "mid-ground" and "sky" of the painting.

8.   Take a metal scraper and block the "ground" of the painting with a darker paint

7.   Redraw the tree design with compressed charcoal