Painting Foundations: Creating Palettes for the Landscape

Recreate the color palettes of nature and learn how to paint more evocative landscapes with this painting class from Will Kemp. The course teaches painting techniques for quickly capturing the mood of a landscape throughout the four seasons, from a vibrant summer's day to a muted winter snow scene.

Will explains how to simplify and separate tonal values into areas of light and shadow, how to use warm and cool colors effectively, and how to mix a naturalistic green palette — a major color stumbling block in landscape painting. A vibrant spring green, for example, can be easy to mix, but hard to balance. The same is true for warm autumnal colors and the vivid blues of summer skies. Will shows how to build these palettes and use gestural impressionistic brushstrokes to paint different landscape scenes. By introducing washes and glazes, he demonstrates how to simulate the atmospheric light of each season. So break out your brushes and paints. Start watching to learn how to mix color for the landscape and approach painting the seasons with confidence.

Learning objectives
Setting up supports and grounds
Choosing brushes, paints, and additional materials
Mixing harmonious color palettes
Creating a winter palette with neutrals
Blending colors of atmospheric light
Painting smoky edges and dark areas of a landscape
Mixing and balancing green
Underpainting a spring landscape
Creating autumnal golden light
Extending color palettes
Adding watery washes and glazes
Creating a vibrant summer palette
Simplifying shapes in a landscape painting