This month in the Values I class we have concerned ourselves with being able to recognize values in the landscape accurately as well as to understand concepts like Carlson’s Theory of Angles and atmospheric perspective. We often perceive value in Nature inaccurately. For example, warm colors are often judged to be lighter than they actually […]
The Dark Side
One of the most challenging effects to paint are depictions of the night. Nocturnes have particularly fascinated artists since the latter part of the 19th century. Painting the night presents special challenges in “keying” the landscape- that is, selecting a range of values which best depicts the light effect desired. Of course, in the case […]
A Composition Lesson from Corot
A View of Volterra Corot (click for larger view) As landscape painters, one of our main tasks in composing is to get our viewers into the painting and gracefully out of it. The creation of entrances and exits requires that the viewer move easily and at the appropriate speed through the painting as well. No […]
Carlson's Theory of Angles- An Introduction
It was over 20 years ago when I first got my hands on a copy of Carlson. I had wandered into the bookstore at the Scottsdale Artist’s School trying to escape the overwhelming odor of maroger and of course went straight to the landscape section, which was what I was really interested in. I picked […]
Designing a Sky
Skies are just like other elements of the landscape- as artists we need to impose our own idea of design on the raw materials Nature provides. In this post we’ll focus on how weight, balance, asymmetry, movement, and edges can help us design our skies (and anything else for that matter). This painting is by […]
Gone Skying
“I have done a good deal of skying, for I am determined to conquer all difficulties, and that among the rest.” John Constable, October 1821 August is for skying at The Landscape Atelier! Our annual Skies class is well underway and this August we have lots of big summer skies to keep us […]