Big Washes

A common mistake I see in students' work is trying to depict every leaf and every blade of grass.  By doing that, textures start to take over and the focal point can be lost.  Rather I try to find the big planes and shapes in foliage.  I also find that in the front of the tree shapes warmer colors prevail, and as the clumps of leaves recede, I make them paler and cooler.    In the foreground grass area, I suggest the textures at the edges rather than making stripes of each blade.  This way, the eye has a place to rest.  Whisper the grassy areas; don't shout them to the detriment of the more important shapes in the painting.

I painted the sky shape wet-into-wet with a couple of color changes.  The tree trunks were my focal point and rather than painting them a uniform gray or brown, I painted them wet-into-wet as well, making lots of color changes
along the way.  The two sailboats are there to break the horizontal line of the horizon and stop the eye from wandering off the page.

Big flat washes, painted wet-into-wet, textures around the focal point, and clumps of foliage rather than a lot of unconnected dots to represent the leaves.  Non textured sky, sea and foreground grass in sunlight keeps the color and values around the trunks interesting.

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