If Forests Feel Impossible to Paint, Watch This

Most artists look at a forest scene like this and have no idea where to start. The foliage, the glowing greens, the water, the layers, it just feels overwhelming. I've been painting landscapes for over 20 years and taught thousands of students online and one of the things I've learned is this, if you understand the fundamentals, even a complex scene like this becomes surprisingly easier to paint. So in this video I'm going to show you how to break down a busy forest scene like this into clear manageable steps, how to approach all that foliage without getting lost and how to paint those luminous greens that makes the whole scene come alive. So as I say, when you look at a scene like this and if you look at the reference photo here it looks pretty complex but actually the easiest thing to do is to break it down in terms of value and shapes and masses to begin with. So first of all I always start with the darkest values first and I look for all the shadows in the scene. So in this case those rocks in the foreground and also the shadows in the foliage. Now I'm using oil paints here, you could also paint this in acrylics and the brand of paint I'm using is Blue Ridge oils and if you want to get some I'll put a link in the description box below. But those dark tones are mainly mixes of ultramarine blue, burnt sienna with alizarin crimson and a little titanium white and for the shadows in those greens I've started off with ultramarine blue and a little yellow ochre, that's going to create a really dark green. And then as I get into those green half tones there I started mixing in more yellow ochre but also some cadmium yellow medium to increase the saturation and then I mixed in a little phthalo green and even cobalt teal which is going to shift the hue of the green so we get some rich emerald greens in there. I also balance out the mixture by adding in some kind of a red that could either be alizarin crimson or burnt sienna or even cadmium red light. In this case I mainly used alizarin crimson to start with. Now so far I've just been focusing on the shadows and the reason for doing this is actually it sets up the whole tonal framework for the painting and it makes it easier to paint the areas in light. Now I'm working my way forward and working on the water here. So there's some light coming through here, there's some direct sunlight in the background that's coming through the trees but there's a lot of diffuse light as well. So for the water I used a simple combination of varying mixes of yellow ochre, burnt sienna, ultramarine blue and titanium white and you can use this colour mix to create those organic tones that you get when you can see translucent water especially if there's stones in the bottom. You can use those colours for painting mud and other colours such as that and it just looks natural. Now then I've been working into the background and what I did was I increased the saturation of my greens and also lightened the value. So one of the things I added to my green mix was some titanium white but when you add in titanium white it's also going to reduce the chroma or saturation of those greens. So we need to increase the saturation again and you can do this by adding in more cadmium yellow medium. So this green mix was mostly combinations of yellow ochre, cadmium yellow medium, ultramarine blue which was the base of my green then some titanium white to make the value lighter and then I've mixed in phthalo green and this really increases the saturation and you get these beautiful grass green emerald tones really rich and really nice to look at. I also balance out the green by mixing in some burnt sienna so that's just going to add a red element to it. Red is opposite to green on the colour wheel and it just keeps the greens under control and makes them more organic and natural looking. So if you're painting greens and they look a bit neon, a bit artificial, unnatural then balance it out with something that contains red. Now let's continue to talk about how you would simplify a complex scene like this. So if you remember I said I start with the dark values and shadows first and the reason I do this is it sets up the whole tonal framework and in my opinion makes it easier to paint the areas in light but also get the saturation of those colours correct. Now pretty much all of this scene is in the foreground so we're going to be dealing with our full value range so light lights and dark darks but also our most saturated colour so we've got some pretty saturated greens in the foreground but it's easiest to start with your dark values first and then it makes it easier to paint the areas in light afterwards. The other thing is as well is I use the biggest brushes I can get away with when I'm blocking in a painting so I don't focus on detail. In fact when you use big brushes it stops you from painting detail so we want to start off with big masses and big shapes first rule we're going to get some nice painterly brushwork then once everything is dry we can start refining things we can start adding more detail we can start using smaller brushes and that's what I've done here so in the blocking stage I began with those dark shapes so the shadows and those rocks and that cliff that's on the right side of the painting there the darks in the background and then worked my way forward and started painting the areas in light now the greens in there are a lot lighter at least the ones that are in light but it's also standing out in the painting because it's juxtaposed against those dark masses in the background so we're creating contrast which is going to create much more of an effect in the painting that's going to give it more of a wow factor make it more engaging and just be visually more striking the other thing you want to do when you're painting any type of landscape is start off darker at least in the blocking stage so you want to start everything off darker then you start building up your lighter tones you don't want to go too light to start with because if you do that you risk having a flat looking painting so by starting off darker you're just going to have more layers of depth to it and again the painting is going to be a lot more visually striking now then if you'd like to learn more about landscape painting and you've been struggling with creating depth and distance in your paintings struggling with tonal values the lights and darks struggling with colour mixing or even how to break down a complex scene such as this then let me help you I'm giving away my free landscape painting blueprint which just details my painting process because one of the things that helped me to really improve my landscape painting and get repeatable results was having a system a framework for painting and this is what I detail in my free landscape painting blueprint just click the link below and I'll send it over to you enjoy now then back to the painting and once you've got the foundations of the painting established by painting your dark values first using big brushes blocking in those larger masses once that's established it makes it so much easier to then just start building up the painting so keep everything simplified to begin with then you can start adding the detail and that's what I've been doing so far so adding layers to the foliage so starting off with darker layers and big brush marks and then I'm able to start using smaller brushes and applying lighter layers of paint and building up the details so these could be things like some trailing leaves and ferns things like that also the rocks as well and the boulders that are in the stream they're not completely light because they're not in full sunlight they're more in diffused light but I'm able to just work those tones there so that it's light enough but not too light but we've also still got some pretty dark shadows then there's also the submerged stones beneath the water I started defining them more by restating some of these shadows in those submerged stones and building up more detail then when it comes to painting the foliage as I said I use big brushes to begin with and slightly darker then I'm able to layer on lighter layers of paint I'm also using some synthetic brushes here I'm still using combinations of the same greens that I mixed earlier yellow ochre with some cadmium yellow medium ultramarine blue titanium white and phthalo green also a little burnt sienna and I'm using those in varying combinations for those shadow leaves I'm still pretty much using the same colors but with a lot more yellow ochre and ultramarine blue into the mix also some cobalt teal and phthalo green and rounded off with some alizarin crimson to add a red element into it when it comes to painting the leaves as well I wanted the suggestion of floating leaves but without having to paint every single leaf so I was using some small synthetic number three flat brushes and just painting the suggestion of leaves and I'm keeping in mind the contrast as well so that those leaves were juxtaposed against the darker background which is really helping them to stand out but really once you've got the bones of the painting established i.e. the lights and darks and you start working through the painting it's actually not too difficult to just keep adding to those layers adding lighter layers of paint to the darker ones underneath and just building up the detail in the painting such as here where I'm just adding the suggestion of stones there was tons of stones at the side of the water there but I didn't want to paint every single one that would just be a nightmare it would make the painting look overworked and it wouldn't be that much fun to paint so I just painted the suggestion of the half tones in there and some of the darker shadows and just using synthetic flat brushes to do that now at this point in the painting we're well into the modelling stage which is where you're building up the details and I'd let it dry and I was starting to get to the point where I was thinking about getting this thing finished there was still a lot to do at this point but I was just beginning to add things like reflected light into some of these leaves in the shadows so this is where there's still light, diffuse light and it's reflecting on some of those glossy leaves there so you can create more realism without the appearance of it being in direct light now there always comes a point in the painting where you'll need to restate your dark values so this is just re-establishing some shadows just to help bring out the forms of the various elements in the painting a lot more and those dark shadows are going to help to really convey that three-dimensional effect so things like some of the dark accents in the rocks and in between the clumps of plants growing on the side of the cliff there restating some of the stems and branches is really going to help to create realism and then finally, the last thing I'll do in any of my paintings is I always save my lightest lights until the very end so for example, some of the glossy leaves that are shimmering in the direct sunlight and also this shimmering water as it flows over the rocks in the distance there for this, I just used titanium white with a little bit of yellow ochre and I applied the paint with a rigger brush just little dots of paint to convey that shimmering water now at this point, the painting was pretty much finished but I always find it a little bit difficult to know when the painting is truly finished and I was just adding last little details last little highlights and even then, I'll usually leave the painting a few days and just come back to it and just see if there's anything that I missed but as I say, at this point, the painting was complete so I hope you enjoyed this video don't forget to check out the free landscape painting blueprint and if you'd like to also delve deeper into my painting techniques and get help with your painting then come and join me at my art school again, the link is in the description box below thanks for watching and I'll see you in the next video