How to Paint Scenery

Scenery is not always the most exciting feature to paint, but it is necessary. Without the scenery, the subject of your foreground may be left floating in an empty space. Scenery is so vital because it gives character and purpose to your painting. How you paint your scenery will be largely dependent on the setting you choose to create, the feel you want to give your painting and what message you are trying to send. Consider all of these things before beginning the painting process because it will help you develop what you would like to create.

Things You'll Need

• Sketch pad
• Camera

Instructions

1. Decide what setting you want to create. Before you can start painting, it's helpful to figure out what you want to paint first!

2. Do research on the scenery you want to paint. If you know what scenery you want to create and it is a real place, try to visit it firsthand. This will give you a feel for the setting you want to create. If it is not possible to visit this place, do some research and get as many visuals as possible to get a feel for how it looks. If the scenery is not set in a real place, do some sketching to develop how the scenery might look and then use this as a guide in your painting.

3. Take photographs if you can visit the scene you want to paint. With the development of digital photography, this is simple and inexpensive. These photographs will be a great reference point when you are doing your painting. This will help you get a sense of scale and shadow in your painting.

4. Make notes on features that represent your scenery. This will add authenticity to your painting. For example, if you are painting scenery set in suburbia, you would want to make note of the little elements that give the scene its distinction. In this case, you would make notes of street lights, mailboxes, houses, cars and telephone polls.

5. Decide whether you want to layer the foreground on the scenery or add scenery around the foreground. With acrylic paints, it is easy to simply paint over the scenery when adding your foreground. With other paint types, this could be a bit more difficult. Decide what works best for you depending on the paints you use.

6. Mix your colors and start painting. It may help to do a little preliminary sketching on your canvas. You can either paint over these sketch lines, or erase them once you have created a mental picture of where you want everything to be.