Mudmixing Thread

anothermohammad

HI! I'm about six months in. Highlighting hills and trees is my bane.

Things I've found to work:
Adding liquid white
Placing highlights slightly above the dark "background shape"
Pulling paint out very thin on the pallet and really tapping in the brush

Things that don't work:
Adding paint thinner
Ton of paint on the brush
Praying
Cursing

Things I want to try:
Liquid clear
Liquid black
Adding acrylics
Letting the painting dry then finishing the highlights

-M

dracula

Ha yes, cursing seems to work best for me! 😉

lightsnow

dracula

lol! I was just about to post this. Either that or opening the window and throwing the canvas out of it.

RosoLima

dracula A glass of wine really helps, too!

Felix

Don't forget shamefully scraping off the mess you made 😄

anothermohammad

Felix then you just do the same stuff over again?

Jin7

I think you put too much paint on the highlights. If there is too much paint it doesn't work out. So try reducing the highlight color a bit. If that doesn't work, try changing the angle of the brush.

TheLandscapePainter

I mixed mud when I changed what I was doing near the end of the painting. For example when Bob paints his bushes using the one inch brush fully loaded with a "laaaardapaint" they look lush, and he leaves it at that, they are complete apart from a few sticks and twigs which he doesn't paint on, he scrapes them off with a clean knife, no need to return to it. When you start trying to add more paint on top, there's the danger of creating mud. I've discovered that being a bit minimal with the paint to start with is the best way to go so you can add more layers and highlights later if that's what you want to do. Think of it as wet-on-damp, rather than wet-on-wet.

anothermohammad

Did a black gesso with no liquid clear on it, just phtalo and black. Highlights were very very easy!

Broknex

Sometimes I just have to leave what I've done alone... I have a tendency to keep "adding" to something and it winds up just mixing with what I've already done. More is not always better.

tel

If you ever watch kevin hills youtube channel note how he uses "shop towels" the thin blue kind to lift excessive paint from the canvas

wybnormal

@Badandy I have had to scrape a few trees off the canvas and start over because of that 🙂 One of the joys of oils is you can do that pretty easily..

Umagaan

Adding paint thinner and loading a lot of paint in the brush works very well for me, but I'm really careful that I touch the canvas very gently, just enough that the bristles come in contact with the canvas and leave some paint on. And I never go over the same area twice, just touch it gently once and then leave it alone. If I go over the same area again I loose all the details and the mudmixing begins...