When Richard McKinley creates a landscape painting, he likens it to a dance, a push-pull between the artist’s feelings for the place and the tendencies of the medium. For his landscape art, he focuses on a subtle progression of color layers and building a focal point. Here’s a behind-the-scenes look at how he creates his painting, Acequia, from beginning to end, and what occupies his mind during each stage.
Study: On site, McKinley looks for a focal point in the
studies he
creates for all of his landscape paintings,
and he often finds them
where there is the greatest
amount of contrast. This can be a matter of
color,
value, and edges. |
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Drawing: At this stage, McKinley takes visual
measurements of the
subject, but he also gets to
know the subject again by examining and
responding
to his study. He makes a horizontal line for the horizon,
a
vertical one to indicate the central axis of the work,
and several
diagonal lines to show the progression of
the space from fore- to
background. He also indicates
dark, medium, and light values, but is
careful not to put
too many marks on the surface. |
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Underpainting: McKinley builds up an underpainting
with thin layers of
the dominant or complementary colors
in the composition, always keeping
value in mind. He
then puts in the darkest darks and lightest
lights—“book
ends” for the painting that allow him to know the
boundaries of color extremes. |
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Midway through: Now it’s all about the gradual application
of color.
McKinley views a work in progress like a mosaic.
Colors from the
underpainting peek through across the
painting, and he continues to
build up color in thin layers. |
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Finished work: Likening himself to Oliver Twist, McKinley
is always
inclined to add more and more to a painting. To
stop, he reminds
himself of the original impetus for the
painting. He makes sure he
finds the point where the piece
stands up to that original idea, and he
makes sure the work
is made well enough with sound techniques to last. |
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Painting landscapes
is a matter of distilling a wide array of visual information into a
cohesive whole. Going through McKinley’s process allowed me to
understand the motivation behind each painting stage. Our Artist Daily
DVDs take step-by-step even further and bring you the painting action
in real time! And right now our DVD download for landscape painter
Frank Serrano's plein air DVD is available for only 10 cents* (crazy,
right?!). Plus all of our Artist Daily instructional DVDs are available
this way, so you can get them sent right to your computer to start
watching immediately. Enjoy!
*The offer is good through May 20, 2011, at 11:59 p.m. MT.