No. 20

You were right, painting No. 20 is a winner

Thank you, Mgiese84. It's probably in the top 3 of all my works.

Really well done! I appreciate the credit but this is all you :) very beautiful. The eyes are drawn to the light. You will sell this one. I really liked your comment on using the one inch brush for the trees. I totally agree on the fan brush. And you only used three tools. Anytime there is less cleaning and the painting looks great it’s a double joy :). Awesome job.

Thanks, Happyisland. My mountain ridge didn't turn out like yours. But when I got to that point, I thought it looked good as is, so I left it alone and moved on.

That white spot didn't look very bright until I added the rest of the paint. Funny how that works.

As for the fan brush and background trees, they look good when Bob does them, but mine end up looking like tall grass swaying in the breeze. 🙂

Regards.

Alex, I really like this one. How striking. I love the use of space and color to draw your eyes around the landscape. I have seen a number of scenes similar to this growing up in the desert, as the sun sets in a small valley between mountain peaks. Very striking indeed!

Thank you, Kaylee, for the kind words. I appreciate it. I think this is the first time I've been able to create that light-and-dark contrast I see in so many paintings from others on this site...including your works.

Best wishes.

On those distant evergreens just make sure you use plenty of paint of the brush. Sometimes mine get fat on me because I try to skimp on the paint.

@Alex Ander - great job here! Nice sky and mountain. Great attempt about using new tools!

About that comment that trees look like a grass - this is because front end added sense of proportion and suddenly linear perspective started to play important role.
If you close bottom part of painting till the half approximately you will return the sense of far away forest.

Great learning path you already have travelled and it is fantastic to hear you learn new things!

Thanks for the tip, Mgiese84. I, too, tend to skimp on the paint.

Sunnylady: I think I get what you're saying on the perspective. It's almost as if you're tilting the painting away from you to get a 'far away' viewpoint. At least that's how I'm envisioning it, anyway. Thank you.

Check this link - https://youtu.be/XRrKohWdpeQ

Think what would be the size of that tree if one would grow straight at the bottom of the canvas.

Our brains/eyes wired to accept the linear perspective and when something is off normal the catch it immediately.

I grew up in region where trees are tall like 5 storied buildings 15m when I had trip to quite a north all the trees there were maximum 20ft/6m. My brain was puzzled about such phenomena and took a while to accept.

In painting it is quite the same. Brain always tries to link to the known objects.

Linear perspective is a link that bonds entire painting in one when we paint realistic this distortion of proportions catches the eye and asks the brain about justification.

I hope it helps on your art path.

Thanks again, Sunnylady. I'll check out that link.

Sunnylady: Watched the video. Amazed at what he did with just a pencil.

Great! Maybe you want to try to paint that scene one day ? Happy painting to you Alex!