Hey Artists True story. Back in 2016 I was painting plein air at the side of Lake Hayes in Queenstown. A beautiful spot. I decided to make the willow trees the feature of the painting. When I finished, it looked completely flat. I couldn't figure out why. Then it hit me. The willows had no leaves. It was winter, and their bare twigs were so light in value that they just dissolved into the rest of the landscape. I'd painted exactly what was there, and it didn't work. That's when it clicked: what you see in nature doesn't always translate to canvas. Everything comes down to tonal values. Get those right and the painting reads. Get them wrong and no amount of colour mixing will save it. If you want to see how I apply this from the very first brushstroke, my Four Landscapes Video Bundle walks through four complete paintings from start to finish - mountains, fields, water, and trees, with values leading the way throughout. Just $19 USD with instant access. Grab it here: https://go.samuelearp.com/landscapes-video-bundle Has anyone else had a moment like this...where painting exactly what you saw just didn't work? Would love to hear your stories below. Happy painting Sam P.S. If you want to go deeper on this, this is exactly what I teach every Sunday inside Sam's Landscape Painting School: https://go.samuelearp.com/landscape-painting-school

Hey Artists I put together a blog post a while back that I still think is one of the most useful things on my site, 37 landscape painting tips drawn from my own experience over the years. It covers everything from colour mixing and tonal values to composition and brushwork. If you're just getting started, it'll give you a solid foundation. If you've been painting for a while, you'll probably still find a few things worth thinking about. You can read it here: https://samuelearp.com/blog/landscape-painting-tips/ Happy painting, Sam P.S. If you want to go deeper on this with live weekly painting classes, take a look at Sam's Landscape Painting School here: https://go.samuelearp.com/landscape-painting-school

Hi

My study of Carl Rungius' "The Mountaineers"... (although I've only included one mountaineer🙄). I'm not really thrilled with it (the shadow needs some work) but here it is. 9x12 acrylic.

In August 2022 I started my adventure with watercolor study , never even attempted to paint before. Learned to paint the leaves trees flowers but strawberry was the first ever I painted. On the end of the pictures is the same picture as the first one but I changed the background because of watercolors I could do that.