Simplifying Nature for a Painting

Sometimes nature looks just too complicated to try and paint. We look and are overwhelmed with what is in front of us. So – simplify the chaos. . .

Every scene in nature can be separated, at its most basic level into two shapes -- black and white. Simplifying into just light and shade at the beginning of a painting makes the entire process easier. Try squinting while deciding what’s in light or shadow. This simplifies the values and makes them more obvious. Instead of hundreds of things to paint, you simplify the scene into the two most important shapes that create a representational landscape. Also remember that keeping the shapes different sizes with unequal masses makes for less monotony in the final product. If you divide the canvas into equal shapes, one light and one shadow your composition might end up boring and forgotten – divide the space unequally.

A helpful exercise to ingrain this concept is to take tracing paper to magazine photos, or photos from an art book and trace the main light and shadow shapes. Outline the shapes with a thin marker for accuracy and then fill in the masses with a bold pointed black marker. You will quickly be able to see the separation of light, shadow and masses the artist used.