Howard Friedland: Painting Waterfalls in Oil
What You’ll Learn From This Video:
There’s only a handful of top artists who are really skilled at capturing moving water. This is a rare opportunity for you to learn from one of them in Painting Waterfalls in Oil with Howard Friedland.
No matter your current skill level, you’ll find yourself admiring Howard’s talent and ability for painting raw beauty. You may even catch yourself saying, “I wish I could paint like that!”
As you study with Howard throughout this video, you’ll advance from wishing you could paint like that to actually creating the magic of moving water easily, quickly, and consistently.
Always carrying a camera, Howard takes photos of paintings from other artists and uses them to further define his own signature style. This has led him to develop unique methods for both painting, and teaching others to paint beautiful water.
Let Howard take the lead as he shows you his process in vivid, clear, and compelling detail.
“It doesn’t take much motivation to get me to paint — I just like the process of doing it”
— Howard Friedland
The process is broken down for you
See Howard go through his process in vivid, clear, and compelling detail:
Grid, sketch, and line
Howard will block in the larger elements with a technique so easy that you’ll be surprised. It’s here that the true focal point of the piece is decided and composed.
Color-block like a master
In these clear steps Howard explains how the colors work together and exactly how to lay them into the painting so they’re pleasing to the eye and work to build the emotion of the piece.
The “core four” water details
Howard has perfected four critical elements of painting water that he teaches step-by-step in this video. You’ll be amazed at how well YOUR paintings will turn out when you use what you learn from Howard!
Where process meets improvisation
Where the freedom of music meets art
Howard has a long history of teaching other artists the best of what he knows. He had terrific teachers along his path, and he has dedicated himself to paying that forward.
As his career progressed, Howard discovered that his “style” also became more fully featured. He found himself incorporating various methods from his different teachers along the way.
When he melds those pieces together, he says it’s like jazz music:
“I like jazz music, so improvising and trying uncontrolled techniques will take over. Most times, those accidental, unconscious brushstrokes are the freshest parts of my painting. If not, I just scrape it off and try something else!”
— Howard Friedland
Put an end to flat, fake, and lifeless water features in your paintings
How to use photo adjustments
Using Photoshop, a photo can be manipulated in ways that expose different elements of the water. Howard also shows in this video that every photo has problems. So, whether you have software or not, he shows how you can use the photo as a guide or as raw material. The goal is NOT to try to paint a good “copy” of the photo. Some parts of a photo will work in your painting, and some will NOT. Howard shows his thought process in this video, and just this one piece alone may give you a new appreciation of the power of your artistic license.
The waterfall trio
The composition, values, and edge control are a vital trio of parts to your waterfall. When any one of those is off, the entire painting suffers. Howard goes over this trio in detail with you in this video.
The “core four” will bring your waterfall to life
Howard believes that light AND shadow are two of the “core four” that need to be present for the painting to have a chance at a soul-stirring impact. The other two are part of his secrets that he reveals only to his in-person students. But now, for the first time, he shares them in this video. These are truly worth the price of admission!
In his video, Howard has included some amazing EXTRAS for you:
Albert Handell: Painting Water & Rocks in Oil
In this video, Albert shows you how to take what touches you in nature and translate your impressions with paint.
Here’s just some of what Albert Handell has in store for you:
The Challenge of Water and Rocks
Water and rocks are some of the most challenging subjects for many landscape painters … and just two of Albert’s specialties!
Watch and paint right along with Albert as he shares the tips and techniques that will help you bring the rush and power of flowing water into your paintings.
You’ll see how to make rocks look super realistic by depicting them accurately — the true colors, the lost and found edges and angles, and the shadows they create. Whether the rocks are your focal point or used as a strong backdrop, getting them just right makes the movement of the water natural and believable.
You’ll be hard-pressed to find an artist and instructor who can bring water and rocks to life as well as Albert can.
Albert’s Signature Style
Albert takes you deep into his insights on color, value, paint application, and how to best work from life and from photographs. He shares his favorite techniques for visual blending — using different colors of similar value and combining transparent and opaque applications of paint to bring in the shimmer of moving water and wet rocks.
These are the moves that have made Albert famous and that have earned him awards and accolades throughout his career.
Now, you get a front row seat to experience these moves for yourself and to incorporate them into your own artwork.
You won’t want to miss a minute of this nearly six-hour video where Albert shares it all — every decision, every technique, and full explanations for why and how he does what he does … and does it so brilliantly.
“I visited Albert in his studio and asked him to show me something no one knows that has taken him a lifetime to figure out … I was so blown away by his colors-into-values technique, I said, ‘We have to get this in video. It’s life-changing for every artist.’ The investment in the video is worth it even just for this one technique … yet there is so much more.” — Eric Rhoads, artist and publisher of PleinAir Magazine
You’ll capture the subtle and dramatic changes that occur when rocks disturb the water’s path. You’ll see all the amazing colors found in rocks and find a new sense of enthusiasm in painting them with Albert’s visual blending techniques. Whether the rocks are hidden below the water’s surface, peeking through, or found along the banks, you’ll be more confident in painting rocks after seeing them through Albert’s eyes.
Dave Santillanes: Painting Landscapes
Also included in the video:
Study with artist Dave Santillanes and you’ll quickly see why he believes plein air paintings are even better than keeping a diary!
Dave exposes a fresh approach to landscape painting by deconstructing a scene in order to analyze the atmospheric structure before ever beginning to paint! He’ll show you how to use this newfound information on each atmospheric plane of your painting.
By using the techniques Dave has mastered, you’ll begin to see how color relationships — chroma and value — play into your work. You’ll also discover how to use gray to enhance your paintings … a counterintuitive method.
Dave shows you how to paint faster without compromising quality as he demonstrates how to achieve atmospheric depth, explains the use of greens, and shows how advancing your skills in painting rocks is necessary in landscape painting.
As you watch and learn, you’ll be building skills in shadow shaping, atmospheric depth, adding meaningful detail, conducting pigment analysis, and avoiding common pitfalls that many artists encounter.
This course is designed for all skill levels, and you’re going to have many aha moments as Dave adjusts his reference image to isolate specific shadows and shapes as they become obviously warmer and darker. These four simple gradations of shadows will become the structure for the entire painting.
Dave explains the goal of each phase and then takes you step-by-step through a full painting demonstration.
Dave has been painting outdoors for almost 20 years, learning from his environment to become a nationally recognized landscape painter. His work has been featured in Plein Air Magazine, Southwest Art Magazine and Art of the West. Dave is a signature member of the American Impressionist Society and the Oil Painters of America, and won the grand prize at the 2020 Plein Air Salon (10th Annual).
Add Painting Landscapes into your personal resource library and then be prepared to refer to it again and again as you use Dave’s award-winning methods and techniques to elevate the quality of your paintings.
Chapter Outline