As someone who went to school for art and took so many classes on figure painting and always, ALWAYS thought I would be a portrait/figure painter and was NEVER interested in painting landscapes- hiking gave me a huge interest in painting these places I saw in an attempt to share their beauty and importance. These places I paint are real places and I think that painting them in detail helps communicate that. So, the tips I am going to give come from the intention of realism in painting to capture a place. The fun part is finding your own destinations and capturing them to keep memories and show others how beautiful nature is!
While in figure painting I am an advocate for painting from live models- I feel differently about landscape painting. I am obsessed with all the tiny details that draw you in to a painting and all of those details take time. I hike because I love it and so spend my time on the trail doing that and taking photos to paint from later. It eliminates weather concerns, is easier as it opens up what you can paint with terrain not hindering what you carry and let’s you decide later what places really struck you. Sketching on site CAN be helpful if you later want to develop those sketches into something or want to keep a trail-log! For photos I just use my Samsung phone as it takes great photos and I can upload them to my Google photos later to paint from on my iPad.
For landscapes I largely paint in acrylic or in watercolor. Some of these tips may also work for watercolor but largely this post will focus on acrylic and later I may have a watercolor-centric post.
While much of this info is redundant for experienced painters and I think in writing it I have it geared to more of a hobbyist interest or someone just starting out, I wanted to say that a good starting place is with painting vignettes and plant studies. Try painting a singular mushroom and the way the shadows and light affect it. Try a leaf or a singular tree. When you feel pleased with how these go scale up to a full scene using the techniques you’ve learned.
Scale: Scale is important. A large piece may be desirable for a grand view or a panorama, but a small painting can be more manageable for lots of tiny details and can really help focus on a particular land feature like a single mountain, a view between trees, a particular clearing, lake, etc. When you have your image picked out that you want to paint you may find that sketching a grid on your canvas (or wood panel as I often like to use for its smooth texture) and laying a grid over your photo may help you block out your image to keep it to scale. I don’t bother with this for smaller pieces that are a square foot or smaller as the whole piece is in view as you work. Much larger and it can become easy to focus on one small area letting you distort the rest of the picture. Grids help this avoid becoming an issue. Remember if you crop an image to leave sky above a mountain peak or on a tree top and if you do crop something to do so intentionally by making it not just a little but an intentional section cut off; otherwise you run the risk of looking like you ran out of room in your painting.
I always paint thinly, using little paint on my brush at a time, often using a little water to thin it out (careful not too much as you want your paint to be sound so it sticks and doesn’t crack or rub off). It works better to layer and what are landscapes but layers of land, water, and sky?
I start by painting a sketch of where everything goes in a light color like yellow or French grey, checking proportion to keep everything to scale. Then I start with the background, painting in the sky, then clouds, sun, etc before you start on the midground. When the sky is dry I block in the major land features. For something like a forested mountain I find that blocking it in darker like the darkest main color of the shadows between the trees (black, dark green, sometimes can be blue, etc) makes the trees really pop when I come back over top with the brighter colors adding the texture to show individual trees. When everything is blocked in start adding details from background to midground to foreground. It is often obvious when people start in the foreground then have to paint around what they already painted to make it look like it sits behind and it’s so easily avoided!
Remember details like highlights from the sun, reflections in water, shadows, and individual leaves on close-up plants are all elements that add realism and depth. If there is fog you can use a more translucent paint for the bulk of it and add depth with more opaque white paint dry brushed and blended out with a little French grey here and there. Moss is easily achieved with a dark area on say a tree or rock being dry brushed over top with bright yellow greens.
For overall color I tend to go more off of memory of the place and less from the photo. What features really stand out in your mind? Was the sky a brilliant blue that day? Paint it a little brighter! Or were the leaves an electric red that your picture just doesn’t show to their full glory? Paint them with more color! Photos may take an exact image of what’s in front of the camera but to me often lack the life you see before you. In painting a place you have the chance to depict not only what you saw but how it felt being there! Check your painting outside to see it in natural light to get a more accurate feel for how your colors are looking!
Lastly and perhaps my biggest tip is to not be in a hurry. I spend 50-150 hours on a single painting. Step-back, judge with fresh eyes, take breaks, ask for a friend’s critique.