Advise on painting landscapes

Marinos_88

Hey all!

I'm trying to paint landscapes lately, i'm kinda struggling to understand how i should go about painting a landscape. I took some nice pictures from down the seaside to where i live near Belfast. i had to do some cropping to find an instresting composistion, not so sure if it works. see images below, you're also free to use them as reference image for painting if you like .

I find the last two easy to paint (if i get the values right), but the first two kinda look too detailed. I would love to paint the second one but im not sure if i can get away with not painting everything i see (less detail). Is it possible, any ideas how i should go about painting it?

Thx

Marino.

tassieguy

@Marinos_88, I really like the third one - the long seashore with the bird at left. You're right - this one would be mainly about values. The colour is fairly straight forward. It's a nice composition and there's a lovely value and colour gradient from left to right. This is the one I would paint. 

tassieguy

Of the other two I like the first one best and would crop it something like this:



You could even lose some more of the area above, below and to the left of the couple.



You could also play around with this in Photoshop or any image editor to improve the colour and light. 

Marinos_88

@tassieguy thx a lot for cropping that image with the two people walking. It's more manageable now! I played with the highlights and the darks, but i prefer the dullness of the day, I couldn't come up with anything interesting . I'll do a sketch to see how it looks like. 
Third one is my favourite too, I need to order a canvas panel for it, since it's an akward size . I like it for the reasons you mentioned too! Feel free to paint it, I'm sure you're gonna nail it 
Thx for the help Rob! 

Forgiveness

I like the 3rd one best as well. The 4th one is amazing for the 2 dominant colors, yellow-orange (similar to gold) & violet, I would also crop it making it more suitable for painting. I also suggest further exploring elements of composition for the 1st photo, it has potential for a very good painting, I believe that tassieguy's suggestions above are very good.

Marinos_88

I stared blocking in coulors,  Im trying to play with warm colours in the foreground and cold in the background, does it work?

Richard_P

Yes it works, except I'm not sure about the dark red area, and the black on the middle should be more of a grey I think?

Marinos_88

Yeah I've fixed these now, greyed the red dark area and made that black a bit more gray
I'm struggling a bit with the grass 

tassieguy

It's looking good, Marinos. I love how you've done the finger of land on the horizon - there is a real feeling of distance there. Your idea of cooler in the background and warmer in the foreground works well.

I'm looking forward to seeing this finished. 

A_Time_To_Paint

Looking good so far with the blocked in stage.  I also like the depth.  

Marinos_88

That's what I've done so far.. Kinda struggling to see from the photo I printed and find it hard to add more detail. The grass definitely needs work. Any suggestions to better the values(not necessarily compared to the reference image)? 

MichaelD

I think its looking good @Marinos, the colours are richer and more interesting in your painting than the photo.