Thanks so much for this video!!!!! This is one of my biggest problems - painting lights in foliage against dark. I know about negative painting, but it often looks so overwhelming when you are outside painting. Please do more on this topic!
Glad you and your family are safe. We have been in a similar situation here in NSW Australia about 10 years ago so feel for you all ..I love your site watch it a lot and have learn a lot from you cheer from Oz 👩🎨🎨👩🎨🎨
Indeed allows for free expression, sometimes just the sun hitting one leaf about to fall and being as impressionistic and fun with it. Lots of relaxation and fun!
Thanks, Steve! I remember that day. 80s in August! It felt so good. And thanks for this painting and showing us your process. It's very helpful to see what other artists struggle with.
I spent 2 hours painting plein air this morning. I had those lights /yellow in the background and put in my darks to carve out trees. Before I knew it my trees were one solid mass of dark green. Ouch! Tomorrow I'll add a little gouache. Then back to practicing and letting Steve's voice ring in my head to preserve those lights. Thanks for the advice!!!
1:05 It’s funny you should mention the lighting on the trees today. I was travelling today and the golden hour of the afternoon descended upon us. I spent the journey looking at the golden hues on the trees and plants along the way. The road passed through farmlands with plants, trees and palms and I just couldn’t stop looking at the sun-lit leaves. They were like an ochery PY129. The sky towards the sun was a pleasant cobalt teal mixed with PB35 and the part away from the sun was a PB36, darkening a bit as the sun set. As we neared the coast (we were travelling to the coast), the sky turned from a PG50 to a PB35 only retaining a halo of PG50 under the sun and the rest of the sky was closer to a deep PB28 cobalt blue. It was amazing looking at the dark trees and palms backlit by the sun and a teal sky. Can you imagine, a teal sky at sunset! Sorry for the rant, it was a very poetic view 😅.
Very helpful - thank you! I live on wooded property in Northwest Montana. I am a long-time hobby photographer and a beginner watercolor artist. I love watching the light in the woods: sunrise to sunset and capturing that in photos and now trying to capture it with watercolor ... very minimal success so I hopped on this video immediately. Today's painting will be some small scene practice! I recently saw a quote from an artist about watercolor being a subtractive process, i.e. you don't paint light, you "subtract" by painting light-medium-dark values and leaving the light. This was a great illustration and like your conclusion, I liked the Plein Air version! But I do understand the others were practice/learning ... interesting in so many ways! I hope I can apply some of this to my own painting ... with practice!
There really must be some sort of Gouache topic going around because I’ve watched now three artist with squash, medium as her focus. That’s so unusual. Beautiful job !
Great lesson Steve, on how not to use masking fluid on complex tree paintings. It seems the secret is to maintain the light areas of the foliage, while knowing which clumps are important to maintain the light on the leaves. Tricky but not impossible.
Thank you! This was very helpful to understand how to lighten a painting, bit by bit, to have more values. I’m just beginning to grasp the need, and some techniques, of painting with values to show depth, interest, etc. No art school for me, just GREAT TH-cam videos like yours. Your demos and step by step explanations are excellent.
It was very interesting seeing you go through the process. I am an oil painter and have recently started doing watercolor, so I am going through this kind of process now. What effects get me where I am trying to go, and what don't. I've only done about 4 watercolors so far, but I've sold one! (Small painting) Pretty happy about that.
That was very helpful watching you work through your process. My motto is "Practice doesn't make perfect. Practice makes progress." Thank you for sharing your progress.
Steve has been painting trees for years and I know that as we watch videos online it “seems” to just happen, but it takes more than just a few paintings to get to the point where you have a lovely collection of trees like Steve has done! Keep creating and continue painting your trees and read other comments about how practice makes progress not perfection.
Great exercise Steve. Enjoyed the insight to your process of working through a subject. I tend to paint a subject several times before starting a "final" myself. I find it helps me be more spontaneous as I paint because I don't have to make a decision about how to approach a specific area of a painting "on the fly". As always Steve, enjoyed this video.
Dang, you're out here doing the real important work Steve! I swear this is the same struggle I have with subjects like these (I'm sure most watercolor artist do!), I don't like using masking at all, and I often find the negative background painting technique to be too detailed and tedious, especially if you want to marry the larger shapes in a scene more seamlessly, it just doesn't suit the vibe sometimes you know?! This was truly so informative to just watch you go through your ideas of troubleshooting and getting to a process you find best suited. I loved looking at all of them, honestly, and kinda really liked the darker background one as well, something about the high contrast was fetching! I feel like you've really helped me out with this video, so thank you so much! Also, thanks for reminding us that nature can be the best teacher, better than our own analytical solo struggling sometimes, if we just take the time to stop and look!
Hullo Steve, thank you for sharing your wonderful ideas and techniques for creating trees and foliage. I have used opaque watercolor paints in place of gouache and a whole lot can be done with them as well! Thank you for sharing this lovely painting experience with us. Please take care, be safe and enjoy your day!
Excellent tutorial! (And I love your first painting). Your explanation of what you were looking for in your experimentations after your first en plein air painting was very helpful. Thank you!
Super video, including the various pieces and your critiques. Ever inspiring. Often I am mesmerized by light and texture here as the sun moves through the tree canopy, especially during the latter part of the day. Portions of trees are positively golden; parts of the old unpainted barn are an enchanting blue. Thank you always for your talents.
I enjoy working on one or two flowers in dappled sunlight. For me it's easier than trying a tree or bush with so many leaves of different greens and shadows.
I LOVE the on location trees. I really I’ve the ones you didn’t like the dark backgrounds. I love trees…I need to go try to paint while I watch. Thank you Steve for sharing your process and teaching us ❤️
Wow those are beautiful pieces. This was great to see how you go about with your process of creating the light pattern for the tree leaves. A huge help for me to keep practicing & just enjoy experimenting with different ways of putting the light leaves in especially without bringing the masking fluid. It’s really nice to see that you have tried many times to practice painting this subject to find out what works best for you. Thanks for sharing this with us & showing me that it’s really useful & okay to practice painting a few times to learn how you want to do something.
Thank you, this is very helpful. I’m slowly weening myself from using masking fluid, as I’ve been using it like a crutch. The extremely talented artist and teacher who I studied under did not use masking fluid. She had natural eye for light, both high & low lights.
They all look great to me. Are you going to be doing some fall foliage later on? I like the dark background because it makes the leaves stand out and look more transparent like the light is going through them.
Steve, thank you for your teaching. I've learned so much from you! You are the first watercolor artist I ever watched :) How do you travel with your M Graham paints so that they don't slide into each other in the palette? I made a small tin palette of half pans and the yellow oozed out enough and stuck the lid down and made a mess. (I let them air dry first but they still stayed tacky) And I've always wondered what you and other artists do after you paint outside or while on a location, since all the paints are then wet/gooey. I haven't seen anyone address this practical side of plein air. Thank you for considering my question.
Thank you, this is very helpful. I’m slowly weening myself from using masking fluid, as I’ve been using it like a crutch. The extremely talented artist and teacher who I studied under did not use masking fluid. She had natural eye for light, both high & low lights.
Thanks so much for this video!!!!! This is one of my biggest problems - painting lights in foliage against dark. I know about negative painting, but it often looks so overwhelming when you are outside painting. Please do more on this topic!
Glad you and your family are safe. We have been in a similar situation here in NSW Australia about 10 years ago so feel for you all ..I love your site watch it a lot and have learn a lot from you cheer from Oz 👩🎨🎨👩🎨🎨
Love this. I, too, enjoy copies of trees and plant life. This video is quite helpful to the piece I am now working on. 😂😂
Indeed allows for free expression, sometimes just the sun hitting one leaf about to fall and being as impressionistic and fun with it. Lots of relaxation and fun!
Thanks, Steve! I remember that day. 80s in August! It felt so good. And thanks for this painting and showing us your process. It's very helpful to see what other artists struggle with.
It's so fun painting outside, I always love seeing others do it too 🥰
Thanks Steve. I struggle with painting trees scenes like this when doing plein air. As always I find your videos so helpful.
I spent 2 hours painting plein air this morning. I had those lights /yellow in the background and put in my darks to carve out trees. Before I knew it my trees were one solid mass of dark green. Ouch! Tomorrow I'll add a little gouache. Then back to practicing and letting Steve's voice ring in my head to preserve those lights. Thanks for the advice!!!
You bet!
1:05 It’s funny you should mention the lighting on the trees today. I was travelling today and the golden hour of the afternoon descended upon us. I spent the journey looking at the golden hues on the trees and plants along the way. The road passed through farmlands with plants, trees and palms and I just couldn’t stop looking at the sun-lit leaves. They were like an ochery PY129. The sky towards the sun was a pleasant cobalt teal mixed with PB35 and the part away from the sun was a PB36, darkening a bit as the sun set. As we neared the coast (we were travelling to the coast), the sky turned from a PG50 to a PB35 only retaining a halo of PG50 under the sun and the rest of the sky was closer to a deep PB28 cobalt blue. It was amazing looking at the dark trees and palms backlit by the sun and a teal sky. Can you imagine, a teal sky at sunset!
Sorry for the rant, it was a very poetic view 😅.
I feel like you could write poetry like this exclusively for artists! haha
@@danemeow8 😂😂. Thanks, but that will take me away from TH-cam 🤣. The light was very beautiful!
Very helpful - thank you! I live on wooded property in Northwest Montana. I am a long-time hobby photographer and a beginner watercolor artist. I love watching the light in the woods: sunrise to sunset and capturing that in photos and now trying to capture it with watercolor ... very minimal success so I hopped on this video immediately. Today's painting will be some small scene practice!
I recently saw a quote from an artist about watercolor being a subtractive process, i.e. you don't paint light, you "subtract" by painting light-medium-dark values and leaving the light. This was a great illustration and like your conclusion, I liked the Plein Air version! But I do understand the others were practice/learning ... interesting in so many ways! I hope I can apply some of this to my own painting ... with practice!
Subtractive process. Good way to characterize it.
There really must be some sort of Gouache topic going around because I’ve watched now three artist with squash, medium as her focus. That’s so unusual. Beautiful job !
Squash or gouache?
@@asunsol lol 😂 I am disabled and use dictation , it failed me here .
@@BornAgainFarmGirl Oh it’s ok 😉 I just wondered as English is not my first language and thought it might be a different technique or material 🥰
@@asunsol Thank you for your understanding 😁.
Oftentimes, the Closed Captions will spell out squash for gouache. Funny. I made a delicious squash casserole after the first time I read that.
Great lesson Steve, on how not to use masking fluid on complex tree paintings. It seems the secret is to maintain the light areas of the foliage, while knowing which clumps are important to maintain the light on the leaves. Tricky but not impossible.
Yes, exactly. And many of those decisions are made as the piece develops and you see what's happening.
Thank you! This was very helpful to understand how to lighten a painting, bit by bit, to have more values. I’m just beginning to grasp the need, and some techniques, of painting with values to show depth, interest, etc. No art school for me, just GREAT TH-cam videos like yours. Your demos and step by step explanations are excellent.
Glad it was helpful!
It was very interesting seeing you go through the process. I am an oil painter and have recently started doing watercolor, so I am going through this kind of process now. What effects get me where I am trying to go, and what don't. I've only done about 4 watercolors so far, but I've sold one! (Small painting) Pretty happy about that.
Absolutely stunning paintings, ALL of them!
The word that comes to mind is lovely. Beautiful and calm scenes. Thanks for sharing your process.
That was very helpful watching you work through your process. My motto is "Practice doesn't make perfect. Practice makes progress." Thank you for sharing your progress.
Well said!
I feel quite envious, you paint such realistic looking trees. I wish mine could turned out like yours do.
Steve has been painting trees for years and I know that as we watch videos online it “seems” to just happen, but it takes more than just a few paintings to get to the point where you have a lovely collection of trees like Steve has done!
Keep creating and continue painting your trees and read other comments about how practice makes progress not perfection.
They all look fantastic to me
Great exercise Steve. Enjoyed the insight to your process of working through a subject. I tend to paint a subject several times before starting a "final" myself. I find it helps me be more spontaneous as I paint because I don't have to make a decision about how to approach a specific area of a painting "on the fly". As always Steve, enjoyed this video.
Very true. Yet another plus for doing studies.
Dang, you're out here doing the real important work Steve! I swear this is the same struggle I have with subjects like these (I'm sure most watercolor artist do!), I don't like using masking at all, and I often find the negative background painting technique to be too detailed and tedious, especially if you want to marry the larger shapes in a scene more seamlessly, it just doesn't suit the vibe sometimes you know?!
This was truly so informative to just watch you go through your ideas of troubleshooting and getting to a process you find best suited. I loved looking at all of them, honestly, and kinda really liked the darker background one as well, something about the high contrast was fetching! I feel like you've really helped me out with this video, so thank you so much!
Also, thanks for reminding us that nature can be the best teacher, better than our own analytical solo struggling sometimes, if we just take the time to stop and look!
Hullo Steve, thank you for sharing your wonderful ideas and techniques for creating trees and foliage. I have used opaque watercolor paints in place of gouache and a whole lot can be done with them as well! Thank you for sharing this lovely painting experience with us. Please take care, be safe and enjoy your day!
Looks amazing and is very helpful. I adore the Rosemary & Co eradicator brushes are so useful. I have three sizes of them. 😎🎉🥰
Yes! I had just keft a question about this in a previous video. Thanks, Stephen!
Your scene is nice, you seem to practice with good results, I am inspired thankyou
Oh, I love this. My view from my kitchen is very similar but I haven't been very successful capturing the light. I will give it another go. Thanks!
Excellent tutorial! (And I love your first painting). Your explanation of what you were looking for in your experimentations after your first en plein air painting was very helpful. Thank you!
Super video, including the various pieces and your critiques. Ever inspiring.
Often I am mesmerized by light and texture here as the sun moves through the tree canopy, especially during the latter part of the day. Portions of trees are positively golden; parts of the old unpainted barn are an enchanting blue.
Thank you always for your talents.
I enjoy working on one or two flowers in dappled sunlight. For me it's easier than trying a tree or bush with so many leaves of different greens and shadows.
Can’t wait to try this! Thank you for your instructions and clear guidance.
Excellent videio. Thanks.
Thanks! I always look forward to your videos!
I LOVE the on location trees. I really I’ve the ones you didn’t like the dark backgrounds. I love trees…I need to go try to paint while I watch. Thank you Steve for sharing your process and teaching us ❤️
Excellent content! Thanks for talking us through it. Very helpful!
Perfect
Wow those are beautiful pieces. This was great to see how you go about with your process of creating the light pattern for the tree leaves. A huge help for me to keep practicing & just enjoy experimenting with different ways of putting the light leaves in especially without bringing the masking fluid. It’s really nice to see that you have tried many times to practice painting this subject to find out what works best for you. Thanks for sharing this with us & showing me that it’s really useful & okay to practice painting a few times to learn how you want to do something.
Beautiful ❤
Thank you, this is very helpful. I’m slowly weening myself from using masking fluid, as I’ve been using it like a crutch. The extremely talented artist and teacher who I studied under did not use masking fluid. She had natural eye for light, both high & low lights.
Excellent Steve.
They all look great to me. Are you going to be doing some fall foliage later on? I like the dark background because it makes the leaves stand out and look more transparent like the light is going through them.
Woww,so,soo beautyful trees...😊😮
Steve, thank you for your teaching. I've learned so much from you! You are the first watercolor artist I ever watched :) How do you travel with your M Graham paints so that they don't slide into each other in the palette? I made a small tin palette of half pans and the yellow oozed out enough and stuck the lid down and made a mess. (I let them air dry first but they still stayed tacky) And I've always wondered what you and other artists do after you paint outside or while on a location, since all the paints are then wet/gooey. I haven't seen anyone address this practical side of plein air. Thank you for considering my question.
I just let them dry in the open air. Sometimes it takes a week or more with M. Graham but I've never had a problem once they do dry.
@@mindofwatercolor ok thank you Steve. Maybe I didn't let them dry long enough.
Thank you very much
Gosh you’ve got a couple of quite big palettes
I need to simplify my painting, I’m trying to to too much!!! 😮😂
Oh yes,me always...the same...
Love it!
Q
Do you try to keep a mixing area for yellows, reds, greens and blues sort of separate?
Good stuff, stay out of the poisen ivy😮😅
First!
❤❤❤❤
Any info on your set up for plain air?
The automatic subtitles tell us that you are using squash!
i always make my backgrounds too light and only realize this once im doing bright leaves and highlights.
Thank you, this is very helpful. I’m slowly weening myself from using masking fluid, as I’ve been using it like a crutch. The extremely talented artist and teacher who I studied under did not use masking fluid. She had natural eye for light, both high & low lights.