The Principle of Three - How to paint Trees

Notice the Body: The deep darks of the trees leaves are almost black looking

Notice the Soul: The deep shadowy olive leaves

Notice the Spirit: The bright yellowish green leaves

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The Principle of Three

The Principle of Three, is a basic teaching concept that I have come up with. I believe that you can apply it to your work in a multitude of ways. 3 values, 3 hues, 3 sizes, three objects, 3 color gradations, etc.. This is the first installment

Body, Soul, and Spirit

Let me rephrase that. Dark value, Mid-value, Highlight. The dark value is the body. Think of it as a silhouette of an object, a body without life. It tells you what the object is, be it person or thing.

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The mid- value is the soul. It give the person or object, a Soul, or life as it were. It helps to describe what specific type of person or object something is.

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The Highlight is that which give the person, or object, individual personality.

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A lot of people who find my paintings on the internet, are using searches like: How to paint grass or How to paint Clouds. When you ask How to paint anything, in a Landscape painting, the answer to your question is always the same. Body Soul, and Spirit! If an object is really small you may not always be able to get all three into that small space. If the object is large, it always needs to have a Body , Soul, and a Spirit.

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If you give every object three values, it means by default, you are also giving it three different (HUES) colors. If you do this, to each object, you will be improving that object 6 different ways. Three values + Three Hues. Learn to focus on one object at at time. Don't let the vastness of the painting overwhelm you.

When time allows I would like to show you 4 or 5 different ways to paint a tree. That will be my next step by Step Demo.

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Do you have a preference! Would you like to see a tree done in watercolor or Acrylic?

How to improve your painting skills- Put yourself out of business

"Weekend Warriors"

8x10 modern acrylic seascape painting

8x10

Paint, Paint, Paint! Paint every day. It is really good advice. You've probably heard this often. I will tell you why it is important. When you paint infrequently, here is what will happen. You will paint, what you know! Maybe you have a certain thing that you think you can sell. So that is what you paint. You paint the sure thing. Every time you sit down to paint, you paint in this same vein over and over. If you are selling your work, you might be painting only when sales dictate that you need to paint, to replace what you have sold.


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Here is what will happen if you paint every day.


When you paint every day, you will get to a point where you have more work than you need. Now, what do you do? You have now disciplined yourself to painting on a more regular basis. So now, you have the luxury of putting more thought into your paintings. Come up with some different perspectives, use some different color combinations. Paint a different style to sell in a different market.

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There is a saying in the business world. Put yourself out of business, before someone does. The idea is that you have to be an innovator, so that you continue to bring in new customers. A little tweak to your art could bring in a totally new client base and broaden your works appeal.

Who knows, you may come up with the next hot thing!