In order to brainstorm for an idea for my landscape piece I went through my entire camera roll and created a folder of landscape pictures that I had taken. When I finally narrowed down my selection I had to pick between a waterfall and the grand canyon. Both required a lot of detail, however, I decided on the grand canyon because it was more personal to me. Seeing the grand canyon in person was an experience that I will never forget and I felt that the best way I could commemorate the memory was to paint it. I also liked that the picture had two different color schemes: harsh reds and browns along with the cool blue and white sky.
While making this piece I mainly struggled with the perspective and detail. It was hard to recreate the grand canyon because it appears to go on forever (there was no clear end). So when painting, it was difficult to mimic the appearance of the canyon's continuous layers of cliffs and hills. I eventually just left the last layer black in order for it to appear far away and hidden from the sun. The detail in the rock formation and the vegetation was also hard to illustrate because I either didn't have a brush small enough or I couldn't spend that much time on one portion of the piece (time restraints). If I could go back, I would add an extra layer on the right side so the hills appear more rough/rocky.
Even though I was faced with many obstacles, I was successful in creating the closest rock formation and adjusting the image to best fit the size of the canvas. The closest rock formation was my most successful part of this piece because I feel that it appears very texture and the inclusion of the vegetation makes it appear more realistic. If you compare the original picture and my finished piece you can see that the proportions are off and it is missing some rock formations. I did this because my canvas was smaller than anticipated so I altered the original image and included the key parts of the picture: the front rock formation, the skyline, the river, etc).
I feel that in creating this piece, I learned many different techniques with oil paint. I learned that the more layers to a piece, the more textured/rough it appears. I also learned that if the paint has too much oil- the color will not appear as pigmented, which allowed parts of the red acrylic background to show through. Now I know that when making an oil painting, I need to leave enough room for the paint to dry so I can add more details and make the piece appear more realistic.
While making this piece I mainly struggled with the perspective and detail. It was hard to recreate the grand canyon because it appears to go on forever (there was no clear end). So when painting, it was difficult to mimic the appearance of the canyon's continuous layers of cliffs and hills. I eventually just left the last layer black in order for it to appear far away and hidden from the sun. The detail in the rock formation and the vegetation was also hard to illustrate because I either didn't have a brush small enough or I couldn't spend that much time on one portion of the piece (time restraints). If I could go back, I would add an extra layer on the right side so the hills appear more rough/rocky.
Even though I was faced with many obstacles, I was successful in creating the closest rock formation and adjusting the image to best fit the size of the canvas. The closest rock formation was my most successful part of this piece because I feel that it appears very texture and the inclusion of the vegetation makes it appear more realistic. If you compare the original picture and my finished piece you can see that the proportions are off and it is missing some rock formations. I did this because my canvas was smaller than anticipated so I altered the original image and included the key parts of the picture: the front rock formation, the skyline, the river, etc).
I feel that in creating this piece, I learned many different techniques with oil paint. I learned that the more layers to a piece, the more textured/rough it appears. I also learned that if the paint has too much oil- the color will not appear as pigmented, which allowed parts of the red acrylic background to show through. Now I know that when making an oil painting, I need to leave enough room for the paint to dry so I can add more details and make the piece appear more realistic.