Page 23 - The Decorative Painter Summer 2018

DISTANT TREE ROW
Pat these trees in with the bottom corner of the foli- age fan brush. Use a blue-gray mix of Titanium White+ French Ultramarine Blue+Cadmium Red Light mixed to a value just a bit darker than the hills behind the trees. Sug- gest irregular shapes for the trees, then highlight on the right with a touch of the soft pink sky mix. Also highlight here and there with a light green mix of Titanium White+ French Ultramarine Blue+Cadmium Yellow Medium. Don’t get these highlights too heavy – they barely show up; keep these trees very misty and distant.
TREE LEFT OF BARN
The foliage on this large tree is painted first, using a dark mix of French Ultramarine Blue+Cadmium Red Light and just a speck of Titanium White. Pat in the gen- eral foliage clusters with the bottom corner of the barn brush. Highlight on the right upper sides by tapping gen- tly with the corner of the fan brush, using the soft pink sky mix and touches of the light green mixes. Load the Fan brush with paint on the right corner, and have the paint facing up, then tap gently to throw off clusters of highlight foliage. Keep these highlights very soft and pas- tel so they will look set into the basecoat.
Add the trunk and branches with the dark mix of French Ultramarine+Cadmium Red Light. Use the detail Flat brush to thread them through the foliage. Highlight along the right edges with a very pale yellow-orange mix of Titanium White+Cadmium Yellow Medium+Cadmium Red Light. It should basically look off-white.
BARN
To paint the barn and silo, use the detail flat brush or a smaller flat sable brush if you have one. Begin with the silo. Lay a medium blue-gray mix of Titanium White+French Ultramarine Blue+Cadmium Red Light under the roof and down the left side. Pat the color over about halfway. Clean the brush; lay a mix of Titanium White+Cadmium Orange+Cadmium Red Light down the right side, overlap- ping and blending into the blue-gray until no straight lines remain between the colors. Do the cap of the silo in the same manner, highlighting along the top right just a bit more.
All shading on the barn is painted first. Lay in the dark of French Ultramarine Blue+Cadmium Red Light mix under the roof edges on the right side and gable end, and pull down just slightly. Fill in the left wall (gable end) with French Ultramarine Blue+Cadmium Red Light+a little Titanium White mixed to a medium to dark blue- gray. Use vertical strokes and the chisel edge of the brush to create the barn board effect. Add a darker line (more French Ultramarine Blue+Cadmium Red Light) directly underneath the overhang of the roof (gable end) on the upper left to give it more depth. Also fill in the small win- dow with this dark mix.
Clean the brush; pick up the mix of Titanium White+ Cadmium Orange+Cadmium Red Light to fill in the lighter wall on the right side of the barn. Soften the shading at the top down into the light, blending just enough so no lines remain between the colors.
On the roof, loosely brush in the blue-gray mixes, and then add touches of the pink sky color here and there. Blend roughly together, following the slope of the roof. Add lines of the medium blue-gray mix with the twiggy liner brush to suggest sections in the tin roof. The peak above the window should be the brightest area. Don’t forget to add a suggestion of the roof on the little lean-to on the left side of the barn.
WATER
Paint the water with the barn brush. First, lay a dark blue-gray mix of French Ultramarine Blue+Cadmium Red Light+Titanium White just under the banks and pull straight down a bit. Pull down farther in the front fore- ground area, where the water is darker, leaving the center area unpainted. Clean the brush; pick up the pink sky mix. Using the flat of the brush and short, downward strokes, lay this color through the center, catching and blending into the blue-gray at the sides to set the colors together. This creates the reflections of the pretty sky colors in the wa- ter. Add a touch of pastel yellow in the center to create a stronger highlight, again using the downward strokes, and blending into the surrounding colors slightly as you go. Last, with a very light touch, skim across the water with the chisel edge of the foliage fan brush to distort the downward lines and give a top water surface look to the pond.