When Oil Painting A Landscape, Where Do You Begin?

By Author: Anthony Keith Whitehead
Total Articles: 21
Comment this article

This article is for those beginning to paint in oils. Often a painting is harmed by the painter inadvertently rubbing against or catching an area which has already been painted and is still wet. Here are some suggestions for avoiding this kind of problem.

Reading books on “How To Paint” can sometimes leave one with the sense that painting is all about following a set of rules – and then following another set of rules! That is not so Artists have different ways of approaching the creation of a picture and, when they write books, they are trying to convey something of what they have learned. But some do it better than others.

Suggestion Rather Than Rules
Many of what appear to be rules are really no more than suggestions, ways of working which the artists has developed over the years and which have been found to work – at least in many situations. One such suggestion is to paint from top to bottom, rather than the other way round.

But in the end, you have to decide what works best for you. For example, some writers recommend a “tighter” approach to painting, while others will tell you to ...
... “paint loosely”. Thus it is with “painting from top to bottom”; although there are exceptions. For example my painting Tree In Winter Sun
was one in which I found it more advisable not to follow this rule. After an initial sketch of the branches and their relative positions, I found it useful to more or less develop the painting from the bottom up. Nonetheless, painting from top to bottom is generally a good piece of advise for a number of reasons.

Avoid being Oiled Up
The major reason you may wish to begin painting your picture at the top is that you can avoid getting yourself messed up with paint. Because oil takes time to dry, if you paint lower parts of the picture first, when you come to put in those near the top, there is always the possibility of letting your hand add something unintentional in the wet paint lower down, which does not usually constitute an improvement. Moreover, it can be irritating to have to redo something you have already spent time and effort on.

Also, wet paint can also mess up your clothes if you are not wearing gear that does not really matter. Some artists prefer to do very little sketching of the picture before they begin to paint, although it will have been well thought out and planned first. But in some cases they may find it more effective to work from top down in developing the structure and appearance of their painting.

Advantages Of Slow Drying
There are definite advantages, however, when paint is slow drying. Other mediums which dry very quickly can leave little opportunity for correction. With oil, one can come back next day or, indeed, several days later, and continue where one left off, changing things that, on reflection, and inspecting the work again after a lapse of time, would seem better altered. It is often surprising how differently one sees a painting after a lapse of time. Again, circumstances may be such that it is impossible to return to a part-worked painting for some days but, with oils, that may not be a problem.

Rules Are To Help, Not To Enslave
Painting from top to bottom will not always be the best approach, as even a small amount of experience will indicate.. It may well be that the way the painting is to be developed requires a different approach compared to one which starts at the top. This might often be the case in portraits, for example.

The there are very often parts of a picture that need to be, if not completed early on, at least given an indicative or preliminary treatment. If nothing more, this may be so that you can judge where certain elements need to go, or which colour tones are appropriate, if you have already sketched and planned out the painting in some detail and need to verify exact sizes, tones and positions.

Often, one part of a picture will over lap another. It may be that you judge the final position of those lower elements. But initially define them with very thin layers of colour, something that can easily be painted over later. But sometimes it will be necessary to more or less fully finish the lower elements before painting those above. This may have to be done with an area that will later be overhung by elements higher up. This could well be the case, for instance, with trees in a landscape where the foliage and branches are reaching downwards from the top, although being in the foreground of the painting.

Since this is difficult to define linguistically, a glance at my painting of Janet’s Foss, Yorkshire Dales where there is a considerable overhang of foliage from surrounding trees. This tends to convey an impression of being nearer the viewer, but the visible parts of the picture underneath them needed painting first.

Even so, given a reasonable degree of prior planning of your picture, many potential messing up problems can be avoided even when there are going to be such things as overhang elements in the oil painting.

AUTHOR: A K Whitehead
This article is copyright but may be reproduced providing that all this information is included.
This will take you to paintingsinoil.co.uk main page of original images painted by A K Whitehead.
All the paintings in oil here are by A K Whitehead, who is aself-taught artist, and are original oils and not copies. The approach is traditional, making use of various techniques, including impasto and glazing. This link will take you to the main categories of landscapes, seascapes, snowscapes, waterscapes and still life and all are provided with free frames and fastenings. Free delivery is also included within the UK.