I'm terrible at landscapes. I don't have the patience to do them realistically, because who wants to paint all those individual leaves? and I don't have the skill to convey them impressionistically, they always come out awkward and amateur. So I mostly don't paint them. But so many people are having fun with them in the 30x30 Direct exercises that I decided, what the heck, I'll try one this way, with no underdrawing, and see how it goes.
Well...so much for that. There are little bits here and there that I like, but most of it was not conveyed either realistically or intuitively. It's a brook running between white rocks, with cast shadows from large and small trees on its banks. It doesn't feel like water, although I tried to duplicate the colors I saw as it moved from light to shadow. The rocks are distressingly one-dimensional. The green areas of bush, plant, grass, and trees are fairly indistinguishable one from another. But...I spent 30 minutes and learned something, which is that either I need to do this every day until I get better, or I need to give it up as a lost cause and focus on my strengths (portraits and still life).
"30x21_BadLandscape"—PJ watercolors in Bee mixed media sketchbook, about 8x12 inches.
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