Thank you so much Sandy!
If you think of any topics you’d like covered, please let me know and I’ll do my best. 🙂

Sandy

Thanks Dee. Great question about the first layer of pink. Remember I choose ONE colour (usually) to represent each value area. In this case, the light areas were the sky and the foreground. So that meant I needed to choose a colour that would work under both the blue of the sky and the yellow of the grasses. Looking hard at the grass, I could see variations in the yellow that went more towards oranges and reds. This is why I chose the pink. I felt the pink work well as the first layer of the sky as well, giving a warm base to the cool blues. You can see I used that same pink to come in on top of the foreground yellows later. Hope that helps!

Thanks Ann!! Love that you find the blog and YouTube vids helpful. I like your idea of working with blues and oranges and I assume, pushing that combo as far as you can. And no worries, thumbnails are a work in progress for many many, so you aren’t alone. Just keep working at them.

Sometimes putting a timer on can help when trying to keep loose. When you have a time restriction, you have to work fast. See how long a piece usually takes then try half of that e.g. if it usually takes an hour, put the timer on for 30 mins and see what happens. That doesn’t mean you have to stop but before you work back into tightness, maybe look and see what needs work and put the timer on for another 5 or 10 mins. Then call it quits! This article doing a 10-minute painting may help.

I love your blog and your You Tube videos. They have been very helpful to me, I’m coming from portraits to loose landscapes, and tend to get tight too quickly and then frustration follows. I love the colors of this picture, I’m trying to work with blues and oranges at the moment. As far as thumbnails that is a work in progress. I love the point you suggested “better to paint and mess up than not to paint at all”.

Thanks so much Gabriela! As to your charcoal question… I use vine charcoal because a) I like the feel of charcoal b) it keeps me loose and c) if the drawing doesn’t look quite right, I can easily brush it and redraw. Generally, charcoal is easily covered by the layers of pastels. The only time this may not happen is when it’s under a very light area. But then, I don’t mind seeing the hand of the artist, the process, beneath the work.
Having said all that about using charcoal, I have also been using a 3H pencil. The first time this happened the 3H was the only drawing tool I had. And it worked brilliantly. So now I interchange between the two. Still LOVE the feel of charcoal though!

Thanks Gail , very helpful.

Thanks Ruth! Glad to hear you are making those thumbnails once in awhile! Truly, they are valuable otherwise I wouldn’t harangue!
And yes, I am incredibly fortunate to have my parents nearby and to be able to go out painting with them!! My Dad will be chuffed to know his fence suggestion was seen as so successful!