Ways to Begin an Easy Landscape Painting
The word, Landscape originates from a Dutch word, landscape, which translates to a region or a tract of land. The scenic view of a landscape is a secular and easily accessible subject for beginners learning to paint.
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A landscape can be a picture depicting scenery on land. It can be the vast nature in front of you. The trees, the rock, a mountain and all things natural or man-made as part of the scenic vision. Even a house counts!
Now, if you want an easy landscape painting and want to make it yourself, here is a quick guide on how to go about it.
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Find a Scene to Paint
Available to all, the landscape is limitless. Nature presents itself to you right outside your window, so choose a view first and then assemble your material. If you live in closed quarters and can only find a block of wall staring at you, get out of the house and find open lands! Professionally this practice is called plein air painting.
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Gather Materials
Now that there is a view, choose your materials. It can range from plain old pencils to pastels or blocks of water-based colors. You can make a watercolor landscape, or an acrylic landscape painting depending on your materials.
Spread out your sheet in front of your scenic view, and thoroughly eye your landscape once. With a pencil, sketch out the forms in front of you, the shape of the rock, the soft boundaries of a cloud, and the straight tree trunk without putting too much pressure on the pencil. This will be called the underdrawing.
Prepare a Color Palette
After your underdrawing is finished, prepare your color palette.
It is important to remember that there are no rules to artistic expression and you can replace the colors you see in front of you with whichever ones you feel like. Besides being embedded in mood, colors can have different meanings for different people.
For example look at this painting by Gopal Ghose a contemporary Indian artist, who uses vivid spots of red and orange here to bring the painting alive.
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Brush Strokes Matter
If you are using a brush, you can paint your underdrawing a single light color, to lay the base. Then you can put the strokes of different colors in your watercolor landscape or your acrylic landscape paintings, depending on your choice of hand and finger movements! Don’t be afraid to experiment.
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Light and Dark
Another element to keep in mind, to liven your easy landscape paintings is, focusing on the darkest and the lightest parts. The professionals call it the Value. You can add depth to the painting by judging where the dark and light are found in the landscape. A trick for it is to squint your eyes while looking at the scene and its depth is enhanced just as easily. Squint and copy it on your sheets!
After adding the colors, you can focus on minor details like the shards of grass, maybe a few lines on the top of the leaves and Voila! You are done with your easy landscape painting.
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