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"One Plants, One Waters" Painting Steps by Sharon Repple

Recently, I taught a "cloudscape" workshop at SoBo Gallery in Winter Garden, FL.  When I teach, I usually paint a demo painting that I photograph step by step to help teach the class.  I would like to show you the painting steps for "One Plants, One Waters." 

Sometimes while my husband is driving, I will take reference photos from the moving car as we drive along a country road.  This is the reference photo I used. 

I use Liquitex full body acrylic paints.  My basic palette is made up of transparent colors: Alizarin Crimson AZ, Indian Yellow IY, and Ultramarine Blue UB and opaque colors:  Cad Red Light CR, Cad Yellow Light CYL, Cerulean Blue CB, and Titanium White TW. Other colors Thalo Blue, Cad Yellow Medium, Thalo Green.  

This is the way I set up my palette. A transparent and an opaque of each primary color and white. 

I prime my canvas or Ampersand panel with a mixture of AZ and IY.  The sky is laid in with a mixture of Thalo Blue, TW and CB. The sky is normally darkest at top of the canvas and then becomes lighter in intensity as it approaches the horizon.  

I mix my own black and gray tones. Black is made from mixing three primary transparent colors AZ, IY, and UB plus Thalo blue TB as needed.  To make a variety of grays I add TW to the black mixture and graduate the values. I began this painting with the lightest, almost white, gray values because the light was from above. As you can see, I use a gray that is bluer. Note: with acrylics, there is a color shift to a darker color as it drys, so paint the color lighter than what you see.  Darker values of gray are used in the shadow area of the cloud.  At this point, I am laying in basic cloud shapes. Note: Clouds decrease in size as they go into the distance. I have added a tree line using the black mixture with a touch of  IY. 

At this time, I began to lay in the foreground. The plants add a wonderful perspective tool to bring the viewer into the painting.  Variety of greens are made by combing IY to the black mixture, IY + UB, CYL + CB, and IY + TB or CB.

Now I begin to paint all over the painting, adding more color into the clouds with touches of pinks and purples and adding to the fullness of clouds. Painted a rain line to cloud base letting the viewer see clouds behind the rain.  You can also see some cows in the distance. Patches of water standing in the dirt road and grasses along foreground are painted. Finally, TW with just a touch of IY is brushed on the whitest tops of the clouds to punch the highlights.  Lighter areas of green are painted in the fields to show the light breaking through the clouds.  At this point, I am pleased with the painting and call it done. 

If you have any questions about the process, please contact me through my website.  Thank you so much for following my blog.  Sharon Repple