We have started with oil painting. We had to select a photo or a painting for using it as model for our own painting. Do you know what did I choose? A forest with lots of trees!

Firstly the teacher explained how to use charcoal for sketching the main zones. Also he introduced the basics of color theory and helped to identify and create the colors that each one needed. As we are using a very reduced palette (cyan blue, magenta, cadmium yellow medium, yellow ochre, madder carmine, burnt sienna and white) the most challenging part is to get the appropriate colors. Then we applied the colors on the canvas by filling each zone with its darker tones, from top to bottom. We will add the details in the next lectures.

Some comments/criticism. The sky should be more purple, I had to add more magenta to the mix. It is not needed to paint or define the trunks of the trees at this stage, I had to paint just a green-brown blob. It is important to keep a similar thickness in all the color zones, edges included, the goal at this stage is to remove the white background of the canvas. Fortunately all can be fixed.

And also thank you very much to Melody who nominated this blog for the award on the same day. Melody is studying for a Master’s Degree in Teaching Early Grades and runs the blog 30 Minute Art. The idea is simple: she has been able to find 30 minutes in her schedule for art that uses to draws, write poems, and even produces videos! She always puts a smile in my face with her posts.

Concerning the Liebster Blog Award. It is a chain award, so when you get it, you must pass the award on to more bloggers, in this case five bloggers. The Liebster Blog Award is given to bloggers who have less than 200 followers in order to generate some traffic for them. Liebster is a German word that can be translated as beloved or nice. The rules for accepting this award are as follows:

1. Show your thanks to the blogger who gave you the award by linking back to them.
2. Reveal your top picks for the award and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog.
3. Post the award on your blog.
4. Bask in the love from the most supportive people on the blogsphere – other bloggers.
5. And, best of all – have fun and spread the karma.

These are my nominations (it is really hard to choose only five blogs, I have tried to select blogs with less than 200 followers that have not received this award previously):

• A point of no return – arts, music and food for thought
• Creating from the heart – look at his watercolored berries… they almost smell
• High River Arts – the perfect site to find inspiration
• Les Personnages – fashion design… vê se pões a gargantilha…
• Wayside Artist – her deers and horses seems so real…

Today the drawing shows several tree sketches. I have used other sketches with trees that I found on Flickr as models, by the way, great site to find inspiration. The idea is to experiment with different styles, or species, for creating a catalog for future reference.

Thanks to all of you who follow this series of posts for your encouraging comments.

Today I want to isolate the shape so I do not use color. I use my graphite pencils (mainly HB and 2B) but I have tried to apply same rules, obviously, adapting them to graphite techniques. And here are the results.

The first tree is based on a video by the British writer and illustrator Shoo Rayner. The rest are variations on the same idea.

While I was reviewing my drawing and painting books and several websites looking for advices on how to paint trees, I found several curious statements or rules. Although they are so obvious, it is interesting to note them.

• The light falls on the top of the tree, so this area should be lighter and warmer.
• The branches grow out from the trunk, getting thinner until they become twigs.
• The tree’s trunks usually are not brown, it is better to use a variety of gray.
• The trees are three-dimensional structures, they are not flat, and some parts are closer to the observer than others.

For the sketches I used a combination of cadmium yellow pale hue and ultramarine blue for the several green tones and burnt umber and ultramarine blue for trunks and branches. I am using my W&N Cotman watercolors.

The first tree does not follow the first rule: the top of the tree is not lighter than the other areas. And the “holes” in the canopy show thick branches (second rule). The trunk of the second tree is almost brown and it should tend to gray (third rule). However, the lights and shadows are better in this case (although I do not like the ground). The third tree is almost flat (fourth rule): the texture and colors do not work so well here.

The cross is a Celtic cross. This symbol combines a cross with a ring surrounding the intersection. It has often been claimed that St Patrick combined the symbol of Christianity with the sun cross to give pagan followers an idea of the importance of the cross by linking it with the idea of the life-giving properties of the sun. Other interpretations claim that placing the cross on top of the circle represents Christ’s supremacy over the pagan sun.^[1] The Celtic crosses can be also viewed in Great Britain, France and Spain.

Definitely I have to work my trees. That green stain on the left supposedly is a tree. That will be my homework for the next week.

The park contains a statue of Oscar Wilde, many other sculptures and a collection of old Dublin lamp standards. It is a nice place for walking and also for sketching: there are many subjects that can be chosen to draw.