Forest Edge

Love this, those highlights on the trees are fantastic, the whole piece takes me to a summer's day, this is a really great painting 👍

For me it was a challenge painting too. I could not resolve background. I did not use any gesso and tried to do it with oil. It was a mistake at that time as I added too much oil on canvas since I do not have liquid clear.

Your version looks great! I like the feel that comes from background. It reminds me about dense fog. Little squirrel is so cute!

Really goo - love the squirrel and birds nest.

Love this!! You are so talented :)

So you commented on my first couple of paintings, and I could really use some advice. First, I want to get some more brushes so I don’t have to spend so much time cleaning between sections. But I know nothing about natural versus synthetic, good brands, oval or flat, etc. Can you give me some tips and maybe even tell me the best brand to buy?

Second, any tips on how to do clouds, as well as how to get a good sky color that’s not so bright blue? Bob does a very muted blue in a lot, sometimes more gray or yellowish. Everything I do is either a dramatic deep blue or just very bright that it looks a little cartoonish.

Finally, what do you do with all your paintings? Is there a good way to store them? They’re not really things I want to give away yet, nor do I want to toss them. Is there a proper way to store oil paintings where they won’t get damaged?

LCLeonard I'm glad you like my painting :) I never tought I could actually paint, I only started like six months ago so I'm always surprised when I finish a painting and I actually like it :)
I bought most of my big brushes in our hardware store (Bauhaus ;)), they are made form natural bristles (horse hair I think), synthetic bristles are generally too soft and won't work. My big brushes are flat (because they are probably normally used for painting walls etc), I try to bay those that aren't too thin and have a lot of bristles. I buy fanbrushes, liner brushes and filberts in art store. I like the Daler Rowney Georgian brand, but I really haven't tried so many other brands so I can't really compare. I'm thinking of investing in some Bob Ross brushes, but they are quite expensive.

With the sky try loading just a little blue color in your brush and really spread it on your canvas. Start at the top and work downwards so that it keeps mixing with liquid white and it will automatically become lighter. And you can try pressing harder in some places and just gently touch in other places so that you get more variation in colour. Bob sometimes adds sap green, brown or alizarin crimson to the blue colors.

Clouds for me are very difficult to paint and not may favorite thing. I just can't get the ones Bob paints with fan brush. But I think it's better to start with not too much paint and then slowly adding more, and then very careful and soft blending.

My finished paintings are firstly just sitting in our guest room and drying. I visit them often to look at them and think about the good things, the bad things, the things I'd like to change, the colors, the compositions, the depth... Bob once said - you should just look at your paintings and feel good about them. I gave a few to my friends (but only those that asked me), and a few are on the walls in my house, a few in my office at work... I think all you have to be careful about is that they are in a dry place. And maybe that you can look at them.

If you have time check out the articles on this webpage, there are some useful tips there. And I think Bob's tips about looking at trees, thinking about shape etc are really useful.

Happy painting ;))

Beautiful textured bushes!

You created an appealing scene, and the tree looks great. Such good highlights, and a nice path disappearing into the mist. Beautiful bushes with great shadows.