How to paint a LANDSCAPE Loose Brushwork and Limited Palette

Hey there, Andrew here with another painting video and in this video we're going to be painting a landscape with loose expressive brushwork. Now in this painting demonstration I'm going to be carrying on with one of the works that I was painting out in the field working on plein air. You might remember that painting from a previous video. Now if you haven't seen that video the link is in the description below. I was pretty happy with the composition overall but I felt it needed a little bit more work just to bring it up to a higher standard. Now one of the things that I really wanted to play with in this demonstration was more expressive and loose brushwork and implied detail without going so far as to paint every individual blade of grass but more suggest what textures are doing and give the feeling of light and atmosphere without going over the top with a photo realistic style. So I have this painting and I'm ready to get started but before I do there are some changes that I want to make to the composition. So for this I have a little trick up my sleeve. I've got my finished painting so what I'm going to do is take an image of this and import it into Photoshop and then draw directly over the top. This will allow me to adjust some of the lines. I decided to drop some of these hill lines in the foreground because they got a little bit high in the composition. Also I'm able to add and expand certain features. I thought I'd like to change the shape of this tree and add a little bit more to the top. This tree here in the center needs to move a little bit to the right and this will inevitably change the location of other features within the image. I didn't have the opportunity to get a fence line in the painting while I was painting on plein air so now I can draw it directly in and see how this fits in the composition. Also I might like to recheck the distribution of sheep within the paddock here. I'm not happy with this arrangement so drawing digitally naturally gives me an opportunity to redistribute these sheep and maybe I could change the focus and bring that down into the bottom right hand corner here. This I think will fit the composition a little bit better and if I need to I can always move these digitally. So here's my major change. I'm going to expand this tree. I'm going to move it upwards a little bit and just change the shape overall as I feel initially it was a little triangular. Here I'm going to move this tree down and to the right. This will open up a gap between those two major trees. I'm then going to get rid of these two sheep. This opens up the paddock a little bit more and I can focus on the distribution of relationship between each of the animals but really focusing on the two individuals in the foreground. Drawing digitally like this allows me the opportunity to get a little bit playful with the possibilities in composing my paintings. Perhaps these additions aren't improvements but they sure are fun. I'm pretty happy with these changes so time to get painting. Now I'm going to draw the changes directly on to the canvas using a filbert bristle brush, a bit of burnt umber and quinacridone magenta and I'm following along with my digital drawing incorporating those changes that I made. My painting is now thoroughly dry as it's had a few days here in the studio before I go back and paint over it. I'm really happy with this so far. I think it's going to make a much better painting. Let's mix some color. Now to keep the colors nice and clean I've simplified the palette here and limited the amount of color that I have out. I have burnt umber, yellow oxide, titanium white, cadmium yellow, cadmium red, quinacridone magenta, ultramarine blue, cobalt teal and phthalo green. For my medium I'm going to be going with a pretty traditional mix comprised of stand oil and this can be heat treated or sun thickened. It's fairly resistant to yellowing and I'm only going to be using just a bit of it in each mix. I'm going to cut it with just a touch of pure gum turpentine and just a few drops should do just to make it a little bit more of a fluid mixture. And I keep all of my mediums and solvents here in these badass skull bottles. Now I'm going to mix this together with a palette knife and I should be good to go. Just trying to get all of that solvent incorporated into that stand oil. Now I'm guilty of using way too much medium and allowing the medium to do the work for me when it comes to brushwork and evening out colors. So here with this painting I want to have much more bold brushwork and a much more traditional look so I'm only using this just to break the surface tension of the paint ever so slightly. Now with this painting I'm trying to go for a look of nice loose brushwork and I'm building up the image with a series of bold marks so I'm focused on clean color and really depositing that paint onto the linen. And though I might be blending some strokes here and there I want the overall character of those marks to really show through. In past paintings I've had the tendency to really go too detailed and here this is my opportunity to just loosen up and focus on a more painterly quality. Again with this painting like in other demonstrations generally I start with whatever's furthest away and then work my way forward. So the most distant element within this composition is the sky naturally and you can see that the sky is now becoming fragmented in the way that the paint is being deposited off the brush. I'm mixing very simple combinations here mainly comprised of titanium white, ultramarine blue and cobalt teal. I'm able to get a little bit of a purplish tinge by introducing a bit of quinacridone magenta. I'm really resisting the temptation to add too much medium. I'm trying to keep that paint nice and thick and allow the paint to just cover that surface and even build up in some places. I'm going to allow some of these brush marks to remain because I just love that look. Now I get asked all the time about my palette setup. This is by far my favorite rig that I've had so far. I used to use wooden palettes that I held in my hand but I've just found that this one is much more convenient. It was the most cost-effective option that I've ever come up with as well and if you want to build your own find that link in the description below. Here I'm just mixing a bit of sky color. Now as you can see I generally start with titanium white. I'm going to mix into this a little bit of ultramarine blue and cobalt teal. You can see I've also gotten into that quinacridone magenta to achieve a purple tinge. The only other color that I'll touch here will be the burnt umber to just keep my saturation in check. Sometimes things can get a little bit too intense either too blue or too violet and that burnt umber is really handy to gray things out. I can get a little bit of depth to the shadows and clouds by just adding more burnt umber and more ultramarine blue. Now these two when they're mixed together will go near black without the addition of titanium white. Now if I need a bit of a warm flush to some of the highlights in the clouds like I'm painting here I'll add the slightest amount of yellow oxide and burnt sienna. You can overdo this and when you do you'll find those sky colors will go green. So to avoid that I'm just using the smallest amounts. If I don't use yellow oxide in some of these warm combinations it tends to have a little bit of an insipid look. There's just not enough dimension to that color. It's all about finding the right balance in these combinations. The other thing that's important when it comes to painting skies is focusing on edges. When I deposit paint I then go back and adjust some of the brushwork where appropriate. I want to fragment some of these areas allow some masses to become softer and be very selective about where I would have a sharp edge. It's all about communicating the right form. In order to get these forms to register to us as artists and our viewers it's important to have the right tool for the job. I have got something exciting to announce. Introducing the brand new brush that I've been working directly with Rosemary & Co on. I've been working directly with Rosemary & Co to design this brush to my specifications to achieve the types of marks that I wanted to make. What do we call it? The tish. Of course I'm going to call it the tish. What else am I going to call it? These brushes are fantastic and they're so versatile and finally I have something that meets my needs exactly. It's got just the right amount of flex. It has so many different types of marks that you can make from drawing that line with the blade of the brush or making a broad sweeping stroke. Even nice pointed work and some expressive loose marks. I've painted this entire painting using these brushes and they are by far my favorite brush to use. So you can check out these new brushes from Rosemary & Co by clicking that link in the description below. Now I'm happy with my sky and it's nice and loose and has achieved the look that I'm after. Time to move forward and bring these techniques all the way into the foreground. The next tier of depth is going to be those distant hills. I've increased my saturation and dropped the tone a little bit. These colors and combinations will get more intense as I bring the painting forward towards the viewer and this is the thing that allows me to achieve that sense of depth. Sometimes though we need to adjust that saturation. I felt that these distant hills were just a little bit too blue so I can gray that out with burnt umber and a little bit more titanium white. Getting the right balance in these color combinations is crucial if we're going to communicate that sense of depth effectively. Now something like a sun highlight which I'm painting here could really bring these colors too far forward so I need to approach this very delicately. The color that I go for for these distant grassy hills is going to be yellow oxide and ultramarine blue with plenty of titanium white and quinacridone magenta of course to just kill that saturation by the introduction of that complementary opposite. So I need to allow everything here to just sink into the background and be grayed out and diffused. If I achieve this then that will allow the depth to unnaturally unfold within this painting. Now I've got some great photographic reference here that I'm referring to as I finish this painting off in the studio. It also helped having the experience of painting outside as it gave me a little bit more insight into some of the shapes and colors that I'm trying to communicate. This pine plantation clinging to the hillside forms a nice break in the composition. It's also quite a bit darker so more burnt umber and ultramarine blue is coming through. To achieve some of these greens though I've started to introduce more and more yellow oxide. I still have not touched that cadmium yellow. I'm going to reserve that for the very front of the painting right in the foreground to bring that intensity all the way forward. Now I just love the versatility of the marks that I can get with these dagger brushes. I will draw across the flat blade edge of those bristles or use the broad side. Sometimes I'll twist the handle and use just the point. This will allow me to communicate a wide variety of forms and shapes and then gradually get the look and the feel of those undulating hills. I also go back and I re-establish the form by blending between strokes. I rarely just leave a brushstroke sitting there deposited just as it comes off the brush. I'll often go back and just touch the end of a brushstroke by blending it into another or just add a little bit more to it making it a more interesting shape. I'm constantly asking myself does this really say what I want it to say about this subject. Now I wasn't really happy with my attempt painting out in the field on plein air so I'm really enjoying this opportunity to go back again revisit this painting and make it better. I'm having a much more enjoyable time focusing on those relationships between my colors and also this loose brushwork which I feel has really sped me up but it's also communicating that form so much better. It's all about a loose accumulation of individual marks and when viewed from a distance it seems to just congeal together and really make sense. This is another reminder for myself that sometimes a lot of detail is not really the answer. It's all about that loose brushwork deposited well. I really like some of these warmer colors that are coming through in the autumn leaves on these trees that punctuate the landscape. This is providing a nice break between all of those green zones. These pine trees have got some pretty simple colors. Let's take a look at how I mix these. The depth of tone is given by the ultramarine blue and burnt umber. I'm using a bit of cobalt teal and yellow oxide here to provide some of that highlight green. Now when I say a highlight you'll notice that that color is not that light at all. So long as there's a sufficient contrast between my shadow and my highlight I'll be able to communicate the form of those pine trees. If I need a little more intensity in that highlight I'll add just a touch more cadmium yellow. Sorry to interrupt the painting video but I just had to let you know about something. If you're not subscribed through my website at www.andrewtichler.com you might be missing out on free bonus content. I'm in touch with my subscribers regularly. As well as free content they also get these videos 24 hours ahead of time. So if that sounds like something that you're interested in hit me up through that link down below. Now let's get back to painting. I'm paying close attention to the way those pine trees hold their branches and I'm depositing paint along the lead edge accordingly. I'm trying to get my brushwork to really mimic those individual characteristics of these trees without going too detailed. The aim for this painting was simple. To create something that was really nice and loose and not go for that fine mark making that I got bogged down with in the past. So far so good. I'm happy with the way this canvas is going. Now this big old pine tree is going to command just a bit more attention. It also needs to come a little bit further forward so I'm going to have to make these combinations darker still. I'm going to mix up plenty of burnt umber and ultramarine blue and also start to introduce a little bit of phthalo green here and there. Contrast is everything and I'm really focusing on my edges. I'm also paying close attention to the temperature of the color. Some of these colors need to be warmer and others cooler and I can use this contrast as well to pick apart and reveal certain forms. Now the color of this tree is really dark indeed and you might think from this particular angle that it looks nearly black. It's pretty close. I don't have any black on my palette though. I like to mix these dark colors. I feel that black can really take a lot of the energy out of the color combinations. It's something to be used very sparingly and carefully. I'm going to alternate this really dark color with a bit of yellow oxide and phthalo green. Let's take a closer look at how dark we can go with this simple combination of burnt umber and ultramarine blue. If I take relatively equal amounts of ultramarine blue and burnt umber, you can see that the two start to cancel each other out. The coolness of that blue reacts against the warmth in the burnt umber. They absolutely annihilate each other and tend to drop that tone down. Once I'm happy with the tone and the temperature of this combination, I get a liberal amount on the end of the brush and continue to deposit it on the painting, retaining a lot of character and texture of those individual brush marks. Here I want to establish the deep shadows between the branches. This might be covered up later on in the process, but for now this is going to drop the tone here, allow the tree to come a little bit further forward, and give me something to blend into. I can then intersperse some lighter marks in and around these darker marks. This begins to create a really nice textured effect, reminiscent of the old pine tree. One of the things that I'm paying close attention to is the way that these tree branches enter the sky and also how the sky enters the tree. I don't want to create some sort of sense that this is a cutout shape pasted on the surface of the canvas, so I focus closely on this boundary between tree and sky and create an interesting lace-like effect. It's all about positive and negative shapes. I'm going to increase the heat and intensity here with this willow tree in the midground. This has got to come a little bit further forward, so I'm going to mix just a touch more cadmium yellow and cadmium red, also using plenty of yellow oxide and burnt sienna. Again, I want to keep my brushwork nice and loose and just give the impression of a tree and not spell it out. Now, when you're painting loose, it can be a real challenge to communicate something like grass. I mean, this is a really textured component right here in the foreground, so how are we going to get around this issue of not painting every single grass blade but still communicate the texture? Well, I'm going to begin with a nice loose base here and fragmented brushwork. The trick is to have warm and cool colors that contrast against each other and are laid down in such a way that they start to play off one another and create an uneven surface. We can then sparingly add a little bit more fine marks over the top of this, but for now, what we want is a loose, wet base. Also, I'm going to drop the tone significantly in the foreground to allow some contrast to be revealed in the midground. I imagine that the clouds would part and that sunlight would just pour through. That would illuminate not only the grass but this old pine tree as well, and then I can create a little bit more texture along the lead edge where these branches are catching that light. Now, to do this, I'm just using the end of the dagger brush, a little bit of titanium white, yellow oxide, and cadmium yellow with plenty of those darker colors to just bring this mixture down in terms of tone. If I haven't mentioned already, I'm using these dagger brushes throughout the entire painting, and it's great for applying these branches as well by dragging that edge of the dagger brush through the wet paint. Now, these sheep are really going to test my ability to be conservative with my mark making. I could go overboard here. I just want the indication that these animals are grazing here in the foreground. I'm using plenty of cool grays because I know that these animals here are going to be in the shadow of a cloud that's above, and then the light's going to get more and more intense as those animals go into the field. It's all about applying those precise marks like a tile or a mosaic pattern. If a mark is well placed, it can still communicate that loose nature of the brushwork and yet reveal the form of the animal at the same time. I'm following my plan and really focusing on the distribution of animals in the paddock. Try not to form a distracting pattern. The lighting in this scene is not uniform by any means. I really want to have a little bit of contrast and almost spotlight certain features. This will mean that certain animals in the paddock are in full sun, whereas others are caught in the shadow of a cloud. To increase some of the intensity here in the midground, I'm going to apply a little bit more Titanium White, Cadmium Yellow, and Yellow Oxide, and then feather this out across the edges. These sheep here will get a nearly pure Titanium White highlight across their backs. I then need to focus on just getting these two zones to blend into one another and have a smooth transition between the shade in the foreground and that light in the midground. Then by mixing a lot of paint with plenty of Phthalo Green, Cadmium Yellow, even Cadmium Red, I get some nice variety in the marks in the foreground and bring this image all the way forward, also retaining a lot of the texture of those marks. This will only be visible upon close inspection. But occasionally, strategically, we can place just the right amount of fine marks so the viewer's brain will fill in the rest of the detail. Here, what I might do is apply just some darker patches of grass. This will allow some individual strands to be visible. But this is not going to be anything that's carried across the entire painting. Just a few finer marks here and there should fill in some sort of pattern. This is one of my favorite tricks in painting, is just enough well-placed marks will create the effect that the entire zone is detailed, when in fact very little of it is. It's now time for some of the final marks and this willow tree needs some branches to hold up that mass of orange leaves. So I'm going to drag just the edge of a bristle dagger, a very small one here, through that wet paint. This combination is going to be dark, but not so dark that it's going to compete with that pine tree. So I'm using plenty of burnt umber and ultramarine blue and lifting the tone with titanium white. A similar color can be used for these fence posts. I always save finer details like this for the very end of the painting process. It's something that I work up to and really look forward to. And with these final little glints of sunlight off the willow tree, I'm finished with the painting. Now this was a really fun project to work on and it's a scene that I'm becoming really familiar with. I set out with a simple goal in mind. I wanted to loosen up with my mark making and get away from all of that fine detail that I'd had the tendency to get bogged down in. I find that these types of brush strokes really help communicate the character of that landscape a lot more than that fine detail that I was painting with. Now of course it's just a preference. This was something personal for me, just trying to loosen up my style. Overall I'm very happy with the end result but I know that there's more room to grow and I'm looking forward to exploring this technique more in future paintings. Well that's all from me. Thanks so much for hanging out and if you like this video then hit that like button for me. If you want to come back for more and see more painting videos just like this one, subscribe to this channel and don't forget to click that bell icon so you're notified when I upload another video. You can follow me on Instagram and Facebook but most important you can find me on my website at www.andrewtichler.com. Thanks so much for hanging out, I'll see you again next time.