Learn to paint mountains. Oil painting lesson.
Hello!
Today we are going to paint a very beautiful picture using the simple interesting and effective oil painting techniques which will help you paint various mountain scenes simply and easily. We will paint with the oil paints using the alla prima technique – this means we will finish the painting in a one session. During our work we will use the brushes and the palette knife. Our main tool for today will be this palette knife. Also we will need several brushes: a big brush, a flat paint brush, a small chisel brush № 3-4 and maybe a thin brush. It will be great if you have one more palette knife – the smaller one – which will be used for the small details.
Let`s start our oil painting lesson online:
Background. Use the Sky Blue almost without adding the White and cover the whole canvas surface with the help of a big brush.
You can add a bit of Ultramarine or Phthalocyanine Blue to the Sky Blue at the bottom of the canvas.
Then sketch out the skyline little way below the middle of the canvas and the mountain shapes upwards and downwards in order to get an inverted image.
Then mix the paints. Use the mix of Ultramarine + Burnt Umber + Cobalt Violet (Lamp Black) + White for the shadow parts and the mix of Burnt Umber + Cobalt Violet (Light).
Add the paint thinner into these paints and cover the canvas without making a dense layer.
Thereafter cover all the mountains with these mixes. At once you can paint over the mountains and their reflections in the water taking into account the fact that the reflection should be a little bit darker.
Then cover the mountaintops with the snow. For this purpose make the dense mixes of:
- White and Cadmium Yellow;
- White and Violet;
- White and Sky Blue (or the gray one which we have used for the shadow parts)
- Take a canted palette knife and cover the mountains with the snow making the brush strokes accordingly to the mountain slope.
At the next stage of our landscape painting lesson you should add some more shadows in certain places.
It should be mentioned that our mountains have more light on the left and shadow on the right. One mountain is placed deep in the shadow. Also draw in the reflections in the water trying to use the right shades and lines in order to create the mirror reflection.
There are the enlightened mountains in some kind of a weft at the right rear far away.
You should paint it with the lilac color and then cover with the very bright snow.
After the mountains have been finished, paint the green. First you should sketch out very dark green-brown skyline with the small houses above the water making the horizontal movements. Then mark brightly enlightened green with the vertical brush strokes of the lighter color. Draw the reflections of the green in the water. Paint the green fir-trees adding the light and shadow paints with the help of a palette knife.
At the final stage of our painting art lesson you should draw in the foreground. Dip a palette knife into the lighter «fade» green paint and outline the green islets: first – with the horizontal palette knife strokes, then – with the vertical ones.
Slightly blur the reflections of mountains in the water making the horizontal movements with the help of a palette knife; you can also add some white bands.
That is all. We have met the challenge quickly and easily.
After finishing this landscape oil painting lesson, you can:
- go to the mountains and paint them in the similar way,
- or create your own paintings according to the photos you have liked,
- or invent your own fantastic beautiful mountains.
Here is a selection of beautiful mountain scenes for you.
Thanks to all of you. 🙂
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