On a recent painting trip to Montenegro, I was driven up into the Gluhi Do Mountains. The lighting on this day was very flat and I wasn’t sure I could make a painting out of it.
Design strategy
To help me find a good composition, I created a notan design in my sketchbook, to work out an interesting division of grays in the painting. The notan design also helped me to identify a good placement for the focal point, and where to place the negative shapes.
Developing a color harmony
One tip on a gray day like this, is to exaggerate the temperature differences in the patches of paint. Then you can try to find some color harmony between these patches. Here is a video of how I took a scene and used a process of exploration to turn it into a painting. You can see the processes I used in my video, along with some other tips, that you may find useful when you are doing your next plein air painting.
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Thank You
Thank you for taking the time to read this article. If you are interested in a structured approach for learning how to paint, and want to learn more about my Visual Music & Poetry® model, take a look at my online painting classes.
Happy painting!
Barry John Raybould
Virtual Art Academy
Great stuff Barry. I love your approach to painting.
Thank you for sharing.looking forward to future video.