To see the YouTube tutorial on how this was painted, click on this link.

Choosing a crop and colours

After considering the ideas below, deciding on painting big on a long canvas felt like the most fun way to go.

Rarely do I paint an image directly as seen in the photo(s) I have taken. Playing in Photoshop and in my sketchbook, I manipulate the design, colours and cropping. Doing major crops and checking out a variety of formats from square, to ratios such as 1:3 or even 1:6 (narrow, long formats) is a pleasurable process. (There can be several painting ideas within one photo.) From there the decision is how big to paint.

PS If you decide on painting big on a long canvas, consider the portrait (vertical) crop as well as the landscape (horizontal).

Do small studies before painting big on a long canvas

Before going to the canvas, I love doing design and colour sketches with pencil and paints, as well as testing glazes of colours. Some of these sketches are more elaborate than others. This one was done quickly as I had already tested colours and crops within Photoshop. After seeing how the colours saturated in Photoshop, I chose to use pigments to match.

Having a grayscale photo is helpful when painting. It makes seeing the value of colours much easier.

Choosing a Colour Scheme

When using broken colour and many marks, it works well to use an analogous colour scheme, which simply means using colours close to each other on the colour wheel. Yellow/green, yellow, orange and red/orange are the dominant colours for Betwixt and Between. The bit of blue on the snow adds a cool contrast and colour surprise.

Being brave with choosing unusual crops and canvas sizes can lead to more effective paintings. 

PS To see another broken colour video on the Mirja Vahala Art Studio YouTube channel, click here.

Check out the YouTube tutorial for this painting by clicking here.

From the years of being a graphic designer, I love to build paintings from a base of strong design. Whether it is to paint a mountain lake with rocks and reflections — or waterfalls or mountain trails — design is key.

Recognize and Utilize the Design

The book Creative Illustration, an oldy but goody, suggests using letters of the alphabet for designing illustrations. The design for this painting has the following traits:

• an implied ‘H’, or some might call it a frame-within-a-frame
• strong perspective lines provided by the foreground lake and necklace of rocks and boulders.
• interesting angles (necklace of rocks and distant mountains)
• repeating triangles (trees)

So, to paint a mountain lake with rocks and reflections, be sure to maintain the design plan — and to be aware of what it is. One way to make this easier is to do a one-colour study or pencil sketch first. It is a smart thing to do to begin with preliminary design work, even for the simplest painting. Paintings that have great colours lose impact because of poor composition.

Contrasts of Hue and Brightness:

• This painting uses very dull green in the water, which makes the background mountains, sky, rocks and tree shrubs appear brighter by contrast.
• Though the green reflection mixture looks like green pea soup on the palette, it looks right against the orange ground and pink sky reflections.
• The red sky is a complementary contrast to the greens.
• The tinted red sky makes a lovely contrast to the distant blue-green mountains.
• A blue or grey sky would not have had the visual impact of the red.
• Consider creative colour rather than the colours you see when choosing types of contrasts. 
• The tinted ultramarine blue mountain crags makes a neutral contrast on top of the blue-green base.
• The tinted ultramarine blue also makes a good optical blend with the foreground sky reflection.

To sum up, have a good design and have fun with surprising colour.

Here’s the drawing template: 

Click here to view the How-To YouTube video.

A part of doing this tree and fireweed painting is to understand its design or structure. For this painting, I chose an oval, followed by repeating triangles (as in the outer edge of the tree and flowers). The idea of the oval helped me to choose where to place contrasts of light and colour, which then helps the viewer to visually follow the intended movement. We are the ‘conductors’ of our acrylic paintings! (And oil, watercolour and pastel paintings!)

Also take your time choosing a colour ground as a part of painting a tree and fireweed. For this one I chose quinacridone red. Have your pigments chosen and ready to go on your palette.

The colours used for the tree and fireweed painting:

Nickel Azo Yellow (a very bright and transparent yellow). 
Ultramarine Blue
Quinacridone Magenta
Quinacridone Red
Titanium White
Medium to thin paint: Acrylic Gloss Polymer medium. 

Use the best quality paints you can afford. When you see the words ‘student quality’, beware. These paints have fillers and less pigment which makes for poor colour results.

Using negative space painting techniques:

As many artists do, making use of negative space painting is not only pleasurable but makes for more interesting work. So, rather than painting the sky, then pasting on the mountain, then the hillside, then the tree and then the flowers, consider doing the layers differently. In this painting I began with the tree and foliage, then the hillside, followed by the distant mountain, the sky and then the flowers. You’ll see why after watching the video! It’s fun to decide what to cover and what to allow.

For a basic explanation of negative space drawing, check out this YouTube video.

Here is a line drawing you are welcome to print, though I encourage you to do your own drawing. Let the magic of your personal ‘gestalt’ show through! This is just a fancy way of saying let your personal style appear.

Use glazing for more vibrant colours! Click the link to learn more: https://mirjavahalaartstudio.com/glazing-methods-you-need-to-know/

Gestalt: an organized whole that is perceived as more than the sum of its parts.

Glazing methods you need to know includes understanding the difference between transparent and semi-opaque paint. Transparent paint is like stained glass or coloured cellophane. Semi-opaque is like a ‘fog’ of colour. Glazing means to lay down a layer of colour which has been thinned with medium. This can be done on white, another transparent colour or on an opaque colour. Colour glazes are like layers of stained glass when mixing colours for your paintings.

For oil painters, more time is needed for paint to dry. Drying can take days or weeks. Acrylics dry in minutes. Oils have better transparency and longer working time. 

Glazing methods you need to know:

• Glaze on top of dry paint.
• Use transparent paints. To check, refer to manufacturers pigment lists, or test paints on black.
• Thin acrylic paint with a mixture of 1 part glazing medium and 2 parts acrylic gloss polymer medium.
• Glazing medium is a retarder. Too much creates a sticky mess of paint that might lift.
• To create semi-opaque glazes that are mist-like, add zinc white to paints. Or use semi-opaque or opaque paints diluted with the glazing/medium mixture.
• Test which colour to place on top. For example try blue on top of yellow to make green or vice versa. 
• Test also whether to add a transparent layer over a tinted or other transparent colour. It all depends on the effect you want.
• Decide if you want a bright or duller colour.
• For each glaze, the value darkens. For this reason you need to plan ahead. Otherwise your painting will be too dark.
• Try to glaze in a logical order. Paint a majority of areas to be glazed with yellow for instance. There will be areas to later glaze with yellow, or red or blue, such as the smaller details.

PS I am grateful to Canadian artist David Langevin for providing us with invaluable insights (especially on glazing techniques) during his Mastering Acrylics workshops — as well as his Mastering Oils Workshops. Check out his work and technical Q&As at http://davidlangevin.com.  Thanks David!