Painting the foliage realistically
 How
can I make the foliage greens in my landscape look more realistic?
The lush greens of a landscape in high summer are an inspiration to
any artist. The two most common faults made by inexperienced artists,
first, the landscape colours have been applied straight from the tube,
without any modification.
They're altogether too intense, too strident not at all like the soft
greens of nature. Second any beginner tends to paint large areas of the
picture with one single green, without any changes in temperature, tone
or texture, this leads to a rather flat poster like effect.
The solution
 The landscape painting I have done in the above illustrates a more
subtle and varied range of greens in the grass and foliage. Notice how
the colours change gradually from warm and intense in the foregrounds,
while in the distance becoming cooler. This use of colours gradation
lends an impression of depth and atmosphere to the scene.
Notice, too, how I have introduced positive contrasts of light and
dark greens that enliven the picture and encourage the eye to explore
the composition. The sheer number of different shades of green found in
grass and foliage brings depth to the scene.
Modifying greens
There are of course some splendid greens available in tubes and pans.
But these used alone may not be enough to give you the flexibility
required to capture the subtle nuances that are found in nature's
greens. To obtain livelier more expressive colours, it's often better to
vary your tube greens by mixing them with blues, reds and oranges.
It's amazing how tube greens such as Viridian and Windsor green,
which are unnatural in appearance in their pure state, become much more
lifelike when mixed with other colours. The tiniest drop of Viridian,
for instance when mixed with chrome yellow produces a luminous
transparent green that is ideal for painting sunlit foliage.
Do-it yourself greens
Learn how to mix your own green, using yellows and blues, so that you
can vary them from light to dark, bright to muted and warm to cool. Try
making your own colours. Observe the tree trunk given a tranceparent
effect adding burntsiana and Prussian blue with a light wash. I have
added a cow resting under a huge tree to give life to the picture.
The greens become cooler and bluer in the distance giving an
impression of depth and space. The greens in this landscape are fresh
and vibrant because I have built up the colours and tones with lively
strokes of burntsiana, green, blue and yellow and creates an impression
of warm sunlight.
Dry brush and textures
The technique of using a dry brush is one of the most interesting
ones that can be performed with water colour. Naturally, it isn't
something to be used at all times, since some areas of a painting will
inevitably demand techniques involving blending colours or creating
gradation. The large tree in the foreground shown in this landscape is
sufficiently rich in shades and textures to allow it to perfectly
demonstrate the technique of using wash and dry brush.
A touch of burntsiana is also added which mixes with the green. A
very light ultramarine blue wash is applied to the sky and a darker blue
is added to give the cloud effect. The background sky is begun with a
watery ultramarine blue. The form of the clouds are outlined, leaving
them perfectly etched in the sky as the background is completely dry. In
the art below I have used a tone that is much more transparent and
bright.
Finally, to finish the study of different drying times paint yet
another overlapping ridge of mountains in the foreground. As you can
see, with practice the exact definition of their form can be created but
only if the background is completely dry.
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