Martha Saudek: Sunlight on Oak Creek - Applying the Lessons of Plein Air to Photographic Reference

Join Martha Saudek as she proceeds through a series of considerations to best achieve a balanced, cohesive oil landscape painting.

Martha chooses a subject from her source material and selects a canvas shape to best fit it. She creates a series of thumbnail compositions based on the shape to determine a design with clarity and focus. After planning her layout, Martha chooses a dominant color temperature and explores her options for value distribution. Making these key decisions early in the process gives her constant points of reference and frees her to intuit smaller details in the painting.

Martha Saudek emphasizes drawing skill and color theory to keep her composition interesting and balanced. She measures key distances on her photo and canvas to maintain the integrity of her design. She establishes her focal point as early as possible and uses it to determine the balance and level of detail in the rest of the painting. She blocks in her lightest lights then begins work on the cool color scheme she planned at the beginning of the workshop. As she works she pauses to evaluate her composition and balance. The ongoing analysis helps her make revisions early and stay faithful to her design principles. Martha uses mid-sized brites by Grand Prix. Misc.: Odorless Turponiod, Safflower, Paper towels. 

Plein air oil painter Martha Saudek lets her canvas and her subject matter guide her through tough decisions, but she reaches each crossroads with careful preparation and planning.

In this workshop, she shares her process for finding design, value, and color schemes that bring out the best in her subjects. Her techniques for composition, lighting, and analysis will help you paint vivid lanscapes in plein air or in the studio.

Before she picks up a brush, Martha walks through the process of choosing a subject from her source material and finding a canvas shape to fit it. She creates a series of thumbnail compositions based on the shape to find a design with clarity and focus. Martha chooses a dominant color temperature and explores her options for value distribution. Martha emphasizes drawing skills and color theory to keep her composition interesting and balanced.

She tones her canvas with thinned purple and sketches her basic layout, working closely with her photo reference. Martha measures key distances on her photo and canvas to maintain the integrity of her design. She establishes her focal point as early as possible and uses it to determine the balance and level of detail in the rest of the painting. She blocks in her lightest lights then begins work on the cool color scheme she planned at the beginning of the workshop.

As she paints, Martha pauses regularly to analyze her work. She turns her canvas upside down to evaluate composition and balance and makes adjustments on the inverted painting. While filling out her color scheme with warm yellows and touches of orange, Martha takes care to maintain balance. She mutes strong colors with Permalba White and Shiva Flesh and makes judicious use of intense colors to avoid damaging her cool-dominated scheme.

As she swirls in currents and ripples on the water, the medium blues balance the glowing highlights at the top of the canvas, and her original design comes to fruition. To plan for success in plein air or at home with a photo reference, join Martha Saudek in Sunlight on Oak Creek: Applying the Lessons of Plein Air to Photographic Reference.

Bonus Clip

In this clip landscape artist Martha Saudek teaches you the first step in painting rippling water: thin coats of oil and active brushwork. Martha analyzes her photo to find the correct angle for her light source and considers her focal point before mixing colors for the stream. Throughout the workshop, Martha draws on lessons from plein air painting to enhance this studio session.

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