The Secret To Strong Compositions

In this landscape painting demonstration, I show how I use large shadow shapes to build a stronger composition from the very beginning of the painting process. Using my dark shadow “air color” mixture, I block in the major shadow masses first before focusing on detail. This stage is all about simplifying the landscape into connected patterns of light and dark that create strength, depth, and unity throughout the painting. One of the biggest mistakes artists make is breaking shadows into too many small scattered spots. In this lesson, you’ll see how allowing the dark shapes to run together into larger continuous masses creates a much stronger and more organized composition. This demo is intentionally unfinished so you can clearly see the importance of the early block-in stage and how these large shadow patterns become the foundation for the rest of the painting. In this video: • Using shadow shapes to design composition • Blocking in large dark masses • Simplifying the landscape • Creating stronger value patterns • Building depth and visual weight • Why connected shadow shapes matter I’ve also included outlined still images in the accompanying blog post to help you better see the abstract shadow design within the landscape. BLOG POST: https://lindaglovergooch.com/the-secr... If you enjoy landscape painting tutorials, composition tips, and painting demonstrations, be sure to subscribe and follow along for future lessons. Sign Up for Teaching Tuesdays - Free Lessons in your inbox: https://lindaglovergooch.com/ttuesday