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Original Creation

Cliffside Trail

Hammipaints 30 Jan 2023

Painted this one yesterday! Apart from some minor issues I have with it I am quite fond of this one. The mountain worked really well and it is one of my favourite mountains I did so far. I still feel like something is missing though I can't quite make out what. What do you think?
Painted on 60x45cm stretched canvas (insignificantly smaller than 18x24in) which might be my new go-to canvas size.

Acrylics
Featured Article Painting wet on wet with acrylics - an extensive Guide

Comments

Superb work Marc. Unfortunately I lost my skills with acrylics during the last two years where I painted not more then maybe 15 with them. It is a superb medium especially when it goes to small details and layering. You can do it with oils too, but I can only do it when I let it dry for some time.

I am thinking that floating evergreens make painting look unstable. I assume objective was to put them into the fog. I see you lightened the value of the green and changed it to colder green also. But I would suggest to think about making those evergreens even more pale at the bottom- middle to place them inside the fog. Probably dry brush technique will help as it is acrylics.

Thank you Tom! One reason I really like this wet on wet acrylic approach is that I can use slow drying acrylics where I need to blend (backgrounds, water, etc) and normal acrylics everywhere else. Almost no mud mixing issues and I get really nice detailed looking structures when highlighting.

Yep I had some trouble with those, Sunny. I thought about adding more actual cloud structure to the bottom but that was when I was already finished and had washed my brushes. Also I didn't want to risk compromising other parts of the painting or simply overworking it. Ah well, one more thing learned and it still feels alright to me as is :)

Sometimes when I have some concerns that worry me - I repaint fully on top with another painting. But this is extreme when I cannot figure what went wrong.
My little helper to try things is actually going digital: I take photo in a simple editor and play with adjustments there to see what bothers me.

Yours is great painting donโ€™t get me wrong. I know what you say about risking.

Going digital actually sounds like a neat trick! Might try that if I can get my lazy butt to do so haha

Hey Marc , ich finde den Nebel absolut klasse wie die Bรคume darin stehen , top . Allover i like the painting very much , Great ๐Ÿ‘๐Ÿผ๐Ÿ˜Ž

Love it...looks magical with the mistiness and your mountains are terrific!

Danke Dirk!
And thanks Sandy!

I like this and especially the floating evergreens......we don't know what is happening in the fog/clouds, it could be a sheer drop right below those trees.

Thank you Brian!

flippergirlpaints Top Event Submitter

Very pretty from the sky all the way down to the foliage! The 1 floater treee kind of distracts my eye a little. After reading other comments, I would just add that IF you really want to make "corrections" or additions after a painting is dry and you do not like it - you can just wipe it off right away so nothing is "ruined".

Thanks Pam! Funnily enough I felt that one floater gave a bit more credibility to the mist/clouds crawling through that forest. But now that you say it I totally understand what you mean!

I guess I could wipe it off if I was using oils. Would be a bit tougher with acrylics though, even the slow drying paints I use ๐Ÿ˜„

excellent work as always, I do believe you're giving Mr. Giese a run for his money (title) of cleanest technique in the game haha! You certainly deserve it just as much. BTW on the topic of mist, does anyone have tips for doing mist over foreground elements such as the ones in this piece, or especially in a seascape? My efforts to figure it out myself have not proven fruitful thus far >.<

Darn Jeff, thats one heck of a compliment, thanks a lot! I have been using Giese's paintings as reference pretty much since I started painting!

About the mist: actually in this case theres no clouds or mist over foreground elements, it just looks as such. The clouds start just below the base of the mountain I painted while the trees where put in below the lowest row of clouds. I tapped the bottoma as Bob does with the hills.

Other than that it kind of depends of what your trouble with the mist is. I know I struggle with waterfall mist if I have already painted the background element (e.g. a cliff) the mist would cover up and the paint is still wet -> Mudmixing. The trick in that case is to put in the mist first and the cliff carefully afterwards.

@jeffs - mist in the water: top needs to be as fluffy as you want it, bottom where it touches the water needs to be horizontal line to show that it lays on the surface of the water. This was the best tip I learnt from artists on you tube.

@sunny thank you that's a good idea. @hammi I may have been unclear, in that I don't see mist in your foreground, but your painting got me thinking about how to do it. Thank you for your responses!

A true masterpiece Marc!!! I love everything about it. The details are incredible. The birds make this painting alive. Giving you an A++++++++. Lol!

Thank you Nancy! I sure do love putting those birds in to the point I overdo it sometimes haha

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