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A quick video tip for you guys today on painting serrated edges on leaves and reflected light Use code: NOWAY

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I really like the way that particular path sort of meanders through the scrub, giving you an occasional glimpse of the ocean, while the trees and shrubbery along the way lean into the path. It seemed like a long narrow vertical canvas would help with that aspect.

I sketched in the proportions and elements with thinned Dioxazine Purple, and I wanted a lot of sky in the picture - I wanted to create that lovely spaciousness, and a beautiful clear early Winter’s day.

I then flipped the canvas back up the right way, and coming down from the horizon I painted the water mainly Pthalo Blue, gradually adding a tiny bit of Cadmium Yellow Light and White.

From there I went back to the sky and started painting the clouds in, thinking that hopefully this would be the last time I’d need to touch the sky. I was wrong. More on that later. Key word, moron. LOL.

I turned my attention to the foliage on the path. One of the intriguing things about this foliage is the combinations of green. In a photograph, it can look quite monotone. But on closer inspection, there is a lot more colour than you can imagine.

I built up the highlights on the tips of the leaves using a variety of brushstrokes, and then changed the colours to represent the variety. I had to remind myself to not be scared of using white. At that time of day there is a lot of white light bouncing around, and it creates contrast and brightness.

Time to move into the grass tree on the right. I grabbed a fan brush with the idea of putting in the body of the grass trees’ leaves with that, and then adding the highlights afterwards. Sadly, I was a little impatient and re-opened the paint underneath, dragging it across my carefully created bush, scrub and path. Sadness ensued. Bleurghhhhh. Recovering from my massive tantrum and crying session, I then painted in the stalk part, thinking I could work on that. I was wrong. I should’ve gone home. Unfortunately the stalk for some reason, painted itself in completely the wrong place. So I went home to bed and sulked.

Groundhog day, I went back and repainted the foliage and path because I’d dragged the green all over it the previous day. Time to attack the grass tree again, but this time allowing everything underneath it 24-48 hours to properly dry.

From here it was a matter of establishing the stalk, establishing the grass trees in the distance, and then painting all of the leaves of the grass tree in. I wanted them to hang across the path to create the impression that we’d just come round a corner.

Unfortunately the second pass over all the foliage and path neatened it up too much, so I beat that up and then finished off the grass tree with a little bit of detail in the stalk, and some highlights on the leaves. Voila.