Painting a Spectacular Autumn Landscape With Oil Paints: A Step-by-Step Guide to Capturing The Colors of Fall With «The Autumn Gold»

Hello!

Today`s landscape painting tutorial will be dedicated to the beauty of the nature – the beauty of the gold autumn. A few days ago I was walking along the forest path. The forest looked extremely beautiful – it was a warm and sunny day. The evening also pleased me with the amazing sunset in the purple and pink colors and the light mist was slowly lowering through these beautiful colors.

I would like to share my fascination with the beauty of the nature with you with the help of this oil painting lesson video.
I wanted to leave at least some of the sunny and bright colors, which are presented to us by the last warm autumn days, on the canvas.
I was painting from memory those things which I had liked and remembered most of all.
Now let`s speak about the stages of our work.

The first stage of our landscape painting lesson is painting the background.

In order to apply the first layer of the paint, you should take the mix of the paint and the paint thinner; its consistency should resemble the rare sour cream.
First, apply the color of the sky using the White with the Lake Pigment Red strong, you can also add a little violet. Draw the sunlight with the White mixed with the Cadmium Yellow light or Lemon in the place of the sun.
Then paint the silhouette, the outlines of the trees far away, create a kind of a «lining» with the White mixed with the Sky Blue and the Cobalt Violet. Use a brush.

We will pay the great attention to the painting of the foreground, the trees near-hand, the fallen leaves covering the ground and the branches.

The next stage of our landscape oil painting lesson is making the underpainting. Make the underpainting for the future carpet of the leaves on the ground. Paint the closest foreground making the big brushstrokes with the help of a brush or a palette knife. Take the mixes of the different paints in order to show the many layers of this leafy covering. Use the following paints: Cadmium Yellow medium, Raw Siena, Burnt Umber, Lake Pigment Red strong and Cadmium Red. The closer you are to the skyline – the lighter (yellower) the underpainting and the smaller the brushstrokes.

For this case you should better use the chisel brush №8-12. Make the quick movements and direct the brushstrokes to the different sides (herringbone) in order to create the hotchpotch surface.

Now let`s come over to the next stage of our oil painting lesson. After you have applied the underpainting for the «carpet of leaves», outline the trees which are slightly seen far away. Do this with the mix of the Cobalt Violet and the White; you can also add the light blue. Use the thin round brush.

When you have placed the trunks of the trees, the branches and the leaves, you can apply the flecks of the sun and the light gaps – I mean the numerous bright spots of white. The crumpled paper will be the best tool for this task. Since these bright flecks should be applied carefully over the tops of the trees, take a small piece of crumpled paper and dip it into the White with a little Cadmium Yellow (Lemon). Slightly touch the canvas several times using this piece of paper.

Then outline the trunks of the trees which are located on the foreground. Do this with the Burnt Umber using a thin round brush. Afterwards, you should mark the shadow and the lightened part of the trees. Gently touch with the light paints such as White, Cadmium Yellow, Raw Siena and their mixes to the side of the trunk where the light falls on.

Take the Burnt Umber and mark the shadows with the same light movements. You can also add a bit of Lamp Black or Cobalt Violet.

Do not stretch the paint. Gently apply it to the canvas – to the trunk of the tree.
The numerous pastous brushstrokes will help us show the rough surface of the tree trunks and the tree bark.

Now we are coming over to the next interesting stage of our oil painting lesson online. Outline the shadows from the tree trunks with the Cobalt Violet. The closer it is to the tree – the darker the shadow. The further it is from the tree – the less distinct the shadow.

In our case the shadows from the trees are the straight lines which should hypothetically converge.

Outline the branches on the tree trunks on the top of the canvas. Do this with the rare Burnt Umber using a brush. You can scatter the leaves over the branches. Do this with the Cadmium Yellow and the Raw Siena making the light touches and using the palette knife. Also you can use the Cadmium Lemon and red.

Then paint the layering of our golden carpet. Draw a lot of spots with the Cadmiums and their mixes with the White, Raw Siena and Burnt Umber.

At the last stage of our oil painting class we will paint the foreground. Outline some branches, the stems of the dried plants, herbs and shrubs with the rare Burnt umber or even the Lamp Black using a thin brush. I painted these flowers the next day when the first layer of the paints had slightly dried up. At this stage it is also extremely convenient to improve the bright flecks, clear shadows and the thin lines.
Our landscape oil painting lesson seems to be over…:)

I wish you good luck and new success in your creative work!