Teacher
Richard is a talented full time artist, who loves painting and teaching.
"Castle Point" 12x16" Acrylic on Panel by Richard Robinson
How can you create vibrancy and movement in a painting?
This dramatic New Zealand landscape lends itself to an energetic, vibrantly coloured approach. Learn how!
This demo is in acrylics but it's fine for oils too.
I'll take you step by step through this whole process. Just a couple of hours and you'll have a beautiful beach painting.
Just 7 steps
I’ll guide you all the way.
Vibrant base layer
Helps to increase the overall vibrance of the painting. A darker start will make you paint thicker, if that's something you want. I started here with a mid value orange - the complement of blue, which is the main final colour of the painting. This layer is painted with gloss medium to seal it. Then the major shapes are sketched in when it's dry.
Sky in motion
Working from darks to mids to lights in the sky, making mostly soft edges with a large brush. Painting into the thin dark wet mountain so that I can adjust the edges as needed. Sharper edges in the centre of interest, which is also where the spotlight effect goes.
Simplifying complexity
Using relatively large (good) brushes we can achieve the illusion of complex detail with some clever brushwork. Note that the sharpest edges, thickest paint, strongest contrast and most vibrant colours are all found in the centre of interest.
The ocean painted easily in minutes.
Again following the dark to light proceedure with a large flat brush it's fun to dash in large areas of water that are brought to life with just a few key details.
Finishing touches
The headland's reflection is key to this painting and it's painted a little darker and warmer than the land using only vertical and horizontal strokes, wet in wet so it softly blurs together. The few crisp details of the foam and gulls help to give scale to the whole scene. That's when you can get your small brush out!
I'll take you step by step through this whole rich process and you can choose which parts you'd like to try out in your own work.
“We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we’re curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.”
—Walt Disney
Enjoy!
