Sunny Autumn Beeches

So absolutely beautiful Titia! The various shadows really make this one for me! Just a super creation!

Thank you Cronenberg.
It was fun making it, although at first I did not have the guts to add all that yellow foliage when I reached the stage in the third extra image.
So today I finally plucked up the courage and went for it. The foliage is really adding to the sunny look of it imho.

Just gorgeous! Just love all the layers and the foliage and shading are perfect!

I love this! May I ask a few questions? I've been focusing on leaves and trees lately and you seem to have mastered the light and shadow effects on them :D

First of all, is there a trick for picking up where you left off? Did you wet the areas with medium first and then paint on to the wet surface, or some method of thinning the color to paint on a dry surface? I always struggle with continuing a dry painting.

My other question is about how much softer some of the bark looks in the finished version, compared to the pics of previous versions you included. Like that trunk in the upper left for example, how did you accomplish softening the texture of something that had already dried?

Sorry for the interview, I just feel like I could learn so much from you. I'm feeling quite inspired looking at this piece! Thanks for sharing your work :)

Hi Jeff,

I did indeed wet the painting with medium (a homemade 50-50 mix of paint thinner and linseedoil) before I painted on it again. I have this medium in a spray flask so I sprayed it on and then went over it with a brush to get a very thin even coat of it.

As for that tree trunk: I remixed the colour I used back then and made it lighter, but still darker than those bright highlights. I used this colour to sort of soften the edges of those highlights. So the paint isn't really blended. It just looks that way because I used a middle colour.

I hope this helps. <3

Beautiful

This came out very cool. Nice job. 😀

Titia, thank you so much for sharing your knowledge and process! This is such a beautiful painting! I love sky holes in the left side. OMG it is such a beautiful painting! Your light control is awesome!

excellent love the shading

Looks good overall. Well done!

Thank you all! <3

@Sunnylady:
Those sky holes were painted after I outlined the tree shapes. So instead of painting the sky and then paint tree shapes over it, it is treeshapes with skyhole painted over them.

really love the contrast between the bright foreground trees and the rest in shadow!

The realism is incredible! So beautiful Titia! I can't wait to be at your level!

Thank you for your response Titia! I learned something new, I'll have to try the spray flask. I wonder where I'd find the right bottle...maybe an empty perfume bottle.

@Jeffth:
I got a little plastic spray flask at an online art supply store.
Btw, you could also use a very thin coat of Liquid Clear if you happen to have that. It is what I used in the earlier stages of the painting. Might be a safer option because, I think, my medium mixture could make the paint run or difficult to apply when applying too much of it, since it is much thinner than the Liquid Clear.

I'm just experimenting as I go really. Picking up tips and tricks here and there, including this site. :D

@Jeffth, @Titia - maybe a spray bottle after windows cleaning spray? After it is cleaned and dried it gives a nice spray plus also reusing and minimizing waste.

@sunny I imagined a smaller bottle with a smaller spray pattern would make it easier to control the amount going on to the canvas (and to avoid having errant spray getting in the air or on furniture I have nearby)

@titia I have a tub of liquid clear and I feel like I'll have it til the day I die haha. I really like the spray idea; I don't think liquid clear would spray easily, and I'm sure it would clog pretty fast.

I love rescuing old junk and finding an ingenious use for it in my art journey, so I'm excited to find the perfect bottle and try your sprayable mix of medium! (those spray flasks are pretty cheap if all else fails)

Really nice work :) I love the play of light hitting the trees and your details. Well done