# Sunlit Forest



## PainterKen (Jan 14, 2013)

My second acrylic painting that I finished early this morning (1/16/2013).


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## killmaven (Jan 17, 2013)

Better than my second attempt, absolutely. Is this your second work in acrylic, or painting at all?


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## PainterKen (Jan 14, 2013)

Well, it's really my third attempt in acrylic, but I say it's my second because my first was a little "gum tree" (or whatever they're called, with "balls" of leaves?) with no surrounding/background...I've attached it below. 

But compared to my first and second attemps, which were "full" paintings, I think that the skill required between this and those other two are light years apart.


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## PainterKen (Jan 14, 2013)

And just prior to workign on acrylics, I attempted two watercolor paintings, and realized that I bought the wrong kinds of paint (gouache?) from Walmart (a supermarket store). I didn't like the lack of opaqueness and detail, and didn't like the lack control, which is why I switched to acrylics. 

In actuality, I was going to go with oil paints (specifically the Bob Ross style and brand), but it was going to cost much more than I was willing to put into it, for something that I didn't know if I would like doing or not. $20 at Walmart later, I find that I like the challenge that acrylics require in order to get everything in harmony with each other (I can always try oil painting later, lol). Unfortunately, my arm is apparently a wimp because I get tired of holding the brush up for long periods of time, haha!

Here are my two gouache/watercolor paintings...the first is a sakura tree (cherry blossom), which I painted for my daughter, Sakura (yup, same name); and the second is a painting of Mars, based on a photo taken by NASA (which didn't turn out so well...first time using an easel and the black was running into the planet...turning my shadow into some kind of world-eating sludge...


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## George924 (Oct 8, 2012)

Really like the atmospheric perspective in the sunlit forest, your gouache painting of Mars is absolutely beautiful and most of the time I would never suggest using black but in the piece it works rather nicely. Gouache and Acrylics are basically the same medium but the dry time for acrylic is very unforgiving while you are still able to rework the gouache when it has dried. I would suggest trying oils and you do not need all of the materials that Bob Ross uses to obtain the wet on wet effect. Looking forward to seeing more of your work.


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## PainterKen (Jan 14, 2013)

Thank you for the great comments, George. I'm still hung up on the fact that you think that the Mars painting was beautiful. Just about everyone who's seen it has gasped in horror... Thank you so very much, and have no fear, I'll be uploading more as I do them!


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## chanda95 (Apr 6, 2011)

These are great! I just love your forest scenes. I keep expecting a little gnome to pop out of the picture. Its obvious you pay close attention to light and shadows. You do a nice job with that aspect (particularly your use of light to achieve a particular mood or feel) and in time everything will come together exactly as you want. For being brand new at this you are doing very well.


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## stonezephyr (Jan 17, 2013)

Very nice painting. I especially like the detail in the bark of the trees. I followed a tutorial that gave me a similar scene, didn't turn out as well as yours.

One thing I would critique is your lighting/shading. Try to remember the angle at which your light source is coming from. The shadow your trees lay on the ground and the shadow on the tree itself appear to me as if they were getting light from completely different angles.

Great job none-the-less. Keep it up!


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## PainterKen (Jan 14, 2013)

Stone, wow, I didn't notice that either. Nice catch! I may go in tonight with whatever small brush I can find and darken up the trees a little bit to match that light source.


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## PainterKen (Jan 14, 2013)

I uploaded a time lapse of the painting, in case anyone was interested. I find watching time lapses to be a great learning resource (because I can download it from Youtube and slow it down, lol). Yes, that's one of the Star Trek movies playing in the background ;-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4IUp0RF_S4


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