Painting a canyon scene from a photo

home

Painting a canyon scene from a photo

Reader Question: I am painting a canyon scene from a photo. Should I paint the canyon and let it dry, and then paint on the shrubs and trees?

If you are working in acrylics, then yes, that is probably the easiest way to approach it. If the bulk of the image is the canyon, then you can paint in those colors first and then paint the shrubs and trees over top, after the canyon layers have dried. Keep in mind that you may need to apply a few layers of paint to achieve enough opacity in the shrubs and trees, otherwise they might be a bit too see-through.

Also be aware that if you work in a thick style, there may be bumps or brushstrokes from your "canyon layers" that are still visible even if you paint the shrubs and trees over top – which may or may not be an issue, depending on your overall style and what you want to achieve. You could always paint the trees and shrubs thickly as well to hide any underlying bumps or brushstrokes.

The alternative to painting the shrubbery afterwards would be to paint the shrubs and trees at the same time that you paint the canyon. If you are hoping for a smoother, more photorealistic effect, then this may be the desirable option. In this case, the colors for the shrubs and trees would be painted "next to" the colors for the canyon, as opposed to on top of the canyon. This would take more pre-planning, but both methods are equally doable and they can both achieve nice results.

Best of luck and happy painting!!

dots