You
Hello, I'm Marilyn Townsend and I work in machine embroidery along with quilting and fabric painting and applique.
And I enjoy it very much. I find it quite fascinating and I'd like to show you how to begin creative machine embroidery if you haven't done any before.
And then we'll go on to look at some of the students' work and some of the work that I've done and show you what can be achieved when you've had a little practice.
All you need to begin creative machine embroidery is an ordinary domestic sewing machine like this one.
It doesn't need to have all the fancy stitches. If you have one that has the automatic stitches then you can use those but probably in a free way.
All really that is needed on the machine are straight and zigzag stitches and you can even do quite a lot with just the straight stitches themselves.
Really all we're doing is a glorified form of darning. That may not sound very exciting but used in a creative way it certainly can be.
So as long as you have a machine that does straight and zigzag stitches that's basically all you need.
Another piece of equipment that you need are wooden hoops.
I like the very strong beech wood ones about this size. It's about 20 centimeters across.
Or to begin with a smaller one. Either of these two are sufficient.
The smaller one of course holds the fabric quite tightly but it doesn't leave you much room for working.
Once it's filled you have to move your hoop to another part of the fabric to begin again.
The one that I use most frequently is this one which is about 20-21 centimeters across.
I also like one with a screw that has a nick in the end so that we can even use a screwdriver because the fabric has to be very very taut in the hoop.
I think it's important to stress this particularly because especially when beginning it's very easy to have problems.
We're not going to use the foot on the machine, we're just using the needle.
If the fabric is loose the needle plucks up the fabric, the thread shreds, perhaps your needle breaks and you have problems and it puts you off right from the beginning.
If you set out to really tighten your fabric in your hoop to begin with then it eliminates a lot of the problems that you might have.
Some people advocate binding the inner ring of the hoop with either bias binding or tape such as this one here.
You can certainly do that if you find that that helps but I find that's a little bit restrictive sometimes.
I normally use my hoop without any binding on at all.
I know that some teachers like the spring hoops that the inner ring springs into the outer one and if you find those are serviceable for your needs then by all means use them.
But I like the stronger wooden ones because I find personally that they can get the fabric tighter than the others.
The bamboo hoops which you normally buy in craft shops are very good for hand embroidery
but I find that we need a really stronger one for machining because the bamboo ones quite often just press out of shape.
So take the larger of the two rings, the one with the screw on, put it down flat on the table and your fabric on the top and the inner ring inside and press it down firmly.
If it isn't tight enough, and that is quite loose actually, take a screwdriver and really tighten the screw until it begins to bite.
It seems tight enough.
I usually hold the hoop into me and pull the pieces down away from me. I find that I get more traction on the fabric that way.
Some people prefer to pull it up like this but I sort of automatically do it like this without thinking.
I find that the best way to do it. Pull it down really tightly so there are no creases, there are no soft spots and it's really as tight as a drum top.
That's what we're aiming to do.
Don't have a step on the outside of the ring, make sure that they're perfectly level or even that the inner ring is slightly lower than the outer one.
If you don't do that, I always feel it's a little bit like driving your car along the tram lines.
You want to go one way and your car goes the other and you'll find your hoop pulling you to one side as you're trying to go the other way.
Make sure that the inner ring is slightly below the outer one. That seems fairly good.
We're ready to begin.
I've taken the foot off the machine so there's just the needle here.
Use a size 80 or 90 needle. If you have a finer one, which you can do later on when you become a little bit more accomplished,
but to use a finer one when beginning you may have a few problems and we're using quite a thick calico, so I suggest a size 90 needle.
I'm going to lower the feed teeth or the feed dog on the machine, which as you know normally regulates the flow of the fabric underneath the foot.
On most machines there's a little knob or a switch which indicates the darning position.
If I move mine here to the darning grid, the teeth go down below the surface.
Some machines don't lower the feed dog like that. They have a little plate to go over the top.
If you're unsure, if you haven't used this method before, then look in your manual
and it will tell you whether you fix the plate over the top to hide the teeth or whether there is a button to lower the feed teeth.
Having done that, I've taken the foot off and I'm ready to begin.
On my machine I have a shoulder plate like this which I'm going to put on because that helps to balance the hoop.
If you haven't one, then you have to manage without, but it just means that you're balancing your hoop over the little shoulder here
and that makes it a little bit more difficult. So I put that on to balance the hoop.
We're going to work in the hoop the opposite way to hand embroidery, which as you probably know is worked from this side.
But for machine embroidery, this is the right side here.
So I think if you remember that the flat side goes flat onto the machine
and the inner ring is used for your fingers to guide the hoop, then I think you'll remember which way round it is.
So to begin with, I'm going to pull up the underneath thread.
Start anywhere in the hoop just to begin with, but pull up the underneath thread.
Do this every time you begin because otherwise it may tangle underneath and that makes for problems.
The next and very important thing to remember is to put the lever down at the back here.
That's very easy to forget. We all forget sometimes.
I even forget that we can be sewing along and my work goes all loopy and I realize that I haven't put the lever down at the back.
So do put this lever down even though you haven't the foot on because that regulates the thread tension.
And if you don't, your work will become very loopy and perhaps you'll break your thread and so on.
So remember to put that down each time.
I've set my machine on straight stitch.
The stitch length doesn't matter.
We're going to bypass the stitch length because by lowering the feed teeth, the stitch length regulator doesn't come into play.
We're bypassing it altogether and you'll see how we make our own stitch lengths.
So I've done all the things necessary, I think, to begin.
I'm on straight stitch. I'm putting my hands here, but I'm not going to twist the hoop around.
Don't get into the habit of twisting the hoop. Make the needle do the work each time.
I'm holding onto the thread and I'm going to do one or two stitches on the spot.
I'm going to hold onto it a little bit until I've done a little bit of work.
Then I can cut off the thread when I make sure that it's not going to go underneath.
I'll put that down here.
So to begin with, just hold your hoop and relax.
And just do one or two stitches, moving your hoop around the needle.
You may find, for creative work, that you just need to loosen your top tension a little bit, which I'm going to do now.
I've just loosened it a little bit. Sometimes the top thread just needs to be a little bit loose.
Just practice playing around on your hoop, not making any definite pattern, just playing and experimenting.
You'll find that if you put your foot heavily on the foot control and move your hoop slowly, you'll get tiny little stitches.
If you don't put your foot quite so heavily on the foot control but move the hoop quicker, you'll get longer stitches.
So really it's up to you, whatever length of stitch you want to produce.
That is the way you move your hoop and the weight on the foot control.
So just practice for a few minutes doing long stitches and then short ones until you get the feel of the hoop.
As I said earlier, don't twist the hoop around. Make the hoop flow around the needle. Just get used to the feel.
You can even do lovely long stitches. You can walk your machine along, do a great long stitch, fasten it off with one or two stab stitches or stitches on the spot,
and then move it over back to another place.
So it's a lovely stitch for doing long grasses and work on your wall hangings or things where you want a definite effect.
You can virtually move your needle and your thread wherever you want to. That's just up to you with a little bit of practice.
When you've done that, then you may like to try zigzag stitches.
I'm going to move my indicator to about the medium zigzag, just past the middle so that you can see quite clearly.
But once again, the stitch closeness depends on me and the way that I use my machine.
So that if I put my foot down heavily, move my hoop slowly, I get concentrated stitches. I've got to get a satin stitch effect.
If I move my hoop quicker, I get elongated stitches, a drawn out zigzag.
So just experiment with this for a little while. Close stitches, drawn out stitches.
When you've practiced this for a while, you can perhaps guide the hoop with one hand and with the other, bring the indicator back to straight stitch.
So I'm getting a straight stitch there and then I'm widening out to zigzag and bringing it back to straight.
And getting quite an interesting effect. Just experiment with this, not doing any definite designing, but just experimenting with a straight and zigzag and see what sort of thing you can produce.
When you've done a little bit of work like that, you may like to just draw a simple shape in outline, perhaps a cloud-like effect.
So I'm just using straight stitch.
And I've done a cloudy sort of shape, not too elaborate. And I'm going to fill in with zigzag.
So I'm setting the machine to the widest zigzag and I'm filling it inside the shape.
Don't work in regimented lines, just go backwards and forwards until you've filled in the spaces.
To finish off your thread, each time you've finished your work, bring it back to straight stitch.
Do one or two little stab stitches or stitches on the spot and that fastens off the thread.
Then it can either be cut off or you can work to somewhere else, move somewhere else.
You might also like to try to do little French knots on the machine. I used to do these by hand.
It was just about the only hand work I did on my machining. Then I found out how to do them on the machine.
They're not quite the same as hand French knots, but they're very effective.
So to do French knots, you do one or a few little stitches on the spot to fasten off the thread,
a few little zigzag stitches almost on top of one another and finish off with stitches on the spot again.
That fastens off the thread and then you can move to another area and repeat the process.
So it's a few stab stitches, zigzag, straight stitches.
You may like to do big ones or you may like to do small ones, straight, zigzag, straight, straight, zigzag, straight.
Then the threads in between can be cut off later and they make very nice centers for flowers and so on.
They can be very effective on machine embroidery, even for foliage on trees, all sorts of different things.
When you've done that, you may like to try to write your name.
I find that when I write my name, I just use a little zigzag, about number one,
because I find that easier than working in straight stitch.
If, for instance, you have a small letter T in your name and you have to go up one, up the stem and come back down the same stem,
it just leaves you a little way to maneuver if you're working in a slight zigzag.
So try it both actually, try it in zigzag and try it in straight stitch and just see how you go.
Fasten your thread off.
If you've got an eye like that, you can come back, do your little French knot, fasten it off afterwards.
Another interesting thing to do is to work a shape in zigzag stitch, about as big as a 10 cent piece or not bigger than a 20 cent piece anyway.
It's a little bit difficult to work with if you do one much bigger when you're starting off,
but work with medium size zigzag.
I'm just going to go around in a circle.
I've gone around a couple of times, fasten the thread off, then I'm going to cut the thread away and cut the fabric away.
It doesn't matter that I haven't positioned the stitches to go into the circle, I'm just doing that to hold the fabric together,
give it a little bit of a body on the edge.
With a small pair of very sharp scissors, cut out the center.
I'm doing this very roughly.
Make sure you leave this down at the back.
Bring up the underneath thread as we always do when we're starting off.
I'm going to do the same thing on the other side.
Make sure you leave this down at the back. Bring up the underneath thread as we always do when we're starting off.
I'm going to make one or two little stab stitches just to fasten off the thread.
Then on straight stitch, I'm going to darn across to the other side.
Go quite leisurely, don't rush or you may have problems.
I'm anchoring the thread behind the zigzag stitch that I've done,
walking along the side and I'm going across to the other.
I'm walking across the side, along the middle, across the middle.
In fact, I'm just darning across the hole.
When you've done that, you can work in the center.
Filling it in, you can attach the sewing to the edge if you like to make another effect.
I had one student who had done some work before.
She had done some creative machining before and she came back the next week with a great big spider's web with a big stuffed spider in the middle.
She's very effective.
This, of course, can be used on hangings, on clothing, the center of flowers.
Very effective as cut work with another color of fabric underneath.
So those are one or two things that you can experiment with.
You may like to take some wools, various sorts of fabrics.
I usually keep a little bag with all sorts of different kinds in, even nylon from orange bags from the supermarket.
Seaquin waste, if you can get any, the metal that the sequins have been stamped out of, lovely slubby wools,
anything of interest, little bits of net, raffia, things that you think can be of interest to couch down or sew down onto your machine.
So I've left myself a little bit of room here and I'm just going to take one or two little bits and show you how they can be used.
Here's some sequin waste.
Cut a little bit off because I haven't got very much left.
That can be sewn down on the machine by darning in and out of the holes, which can be very interesting.
Starting again, so I'm pulling up the thread as usual.
I'm doing one or two stitches to start off with, checking that my lever's down at the back.
I might put my machine onto zigzag and darn across the holes.
That can make a very interesting effect, just practice doing that.
Or the same with your nylon bag that you've had your oranges in.
A good idea here is to get yourself a feather.
This is just a seagull feather that I picked up off the beach to maneuver your fabrics or move them around underneath your needle.
Obviously, if you don't have the foot on, there is the danger that you may get the needle through your finger, which you wouldn't like to happen.
If you're poking around under the needle with a pair of scissors, then of course if the needle touches the scissors, the needle will break.
But if you catch in the quill of the feather, that doesn't matter, you can just cut it off and start again.
It is most useful for fusing underneath the needle, so get yourself a feather.
Here I've got some nice slabby wool, which I'm just going to stitch down.
You can either use straight or zigzag stitch for this.
What I normally do is just to couch it down very quickly or stitch it down very quickly to start with.
Once it's in position wherever I want it, I'm folding it with the feather, then I can do as much work on it as I like.
I may like to do a lot of stitching, I may want to do very little.
This of course is a contrasting thread, so it's showing up the stitches quite clearly.
You can use those to advantage by making those part of the design.
You can bring them out, make little patterns.
Move my hook around a little bit.
Just really by playing and experimenting, I'm building up a little design of my own as I'm going along.
Here I'm couching down the wool with a lovely ribbon inside.
You can leave that standing up to have a lovely effect, or you can work on it as much as you like,
either making very tiny little loops or just leaving it as it is for a three-dimensional effect.
Another piece of fabric which is lovely to use is one that will fray quite easily.
This is a curtain fabric I think, and the threads move quite easily.
I pulled one or two off the end.
Don't throw those away, you can use those again.
Don't ever throw anything away, you can use up all your bits of threads and fabrics.
Have a lovely time with them.
I can bend these up like this, and this makes lovely grass.
You want to work in a garden with flowers.
I'm just going to do stitching straight down, straight stitching.
I'm going to push this up, stitch back up, come out at the top, fold it up again,
leaving those threads on at the end, so they don't get tangled up in it.
Then I can cut up here.
I can pull more threads off if I want to.
I'll turn my hoop around and then you can see a little bit more easily I think.
These threads that I've already pulled out, I can put back down again.
Just hold those in place.
It doesn't have to be too tidy, it can be quite natural looking.
Then down into the threads, down again with your French knots,
make little heads like the little seed pods on the top of the grasses,
doing little French knots or little bits of zigzag either side of the stitching.
Down again.
The stitching you're doing are looking like grasses,
but they're also couching down the threads and the bits of fabric that we're using.
I haven't a lot of room here now, I've filled up my hoop, but I think you can get the idea.
There we filled the hoop with threads and wools couched down, frayed fabric,
and work that we've just done with a needle.
In a moment I'll show you perhaps how to put these together and to get a little picture of your own.
I just cut off a piece of corduroy here,
which I thought looked very much like the corrugated roof of the homesteads.
We can stitch that down, pull up the underneath thread each time.
Make sure you leave it down at the back.
Cut off the thread so it doesn't get in the way.
Just plain, not doing anything definite, just stitching down this corrugated roof.
I'm not bothering about the edges too much, I'm just enjoying myself.
It's a good idea just to get used to the feel of your machine working freely
and putting together some of the ideas that we've just started without worrying too much about details at this stage,
just getting the idea of how you can use your machine in a creative way.
You can draw with your machine, make your needle go anywhere, but as I said earlier,
don't get into the habit of moving your hoop around.
You're not driving a car and that can make for problems if you start to twist your hoop.
Just make the needle do the work all the time.
A little bit of grass.
Touch down some pieces here, get my feather.
Ribbon is lovely to use too.
This is where your feather comes in really handy.
I'll try and do it from left to right so that you can see more easily.
Just doing a stitch down the ribbon, moving the ribbon one side and across.
I don't think I'm going to be able to do it that way actually,
I'd better start the other way because I'm right-handed.
Make a loop, stitch across and back again, another loop.
You can do some bigger than others.
This ribbon, which has been dyed different colors, almost looks hand dyed
and you get the variation in the color which is just so pretty.
Love it.
I've just couched down a little bit of white slabby cotton for a cloud.
I could have used white thread there of course if I was doing it to be very neat and tidy
but it's a little bit rough.
I'm just showing you quickly what can be done and I think it's a good idea at this stage
not to be too precise but just to get the idea to give yourself confidence and then
go on and work from there because it does take time to get your stitches even and very
carefully put together but just enjoy yourself and experiment with bits and pieces.
I've couched down some colored wool there for flowers in the garden.
I've worked out some little flowers and leaves very roughly but just to show you.
On the windows here I'm using the same technique as we did on the other sample of the circle
cut out and then darned across only this time I've just worked out two little rectangles
for the windows and I'm just going to darn across.
That's my thread on.
Incidentally if you want to change your top thread then you can do change the thread on
your through your needle while keeping the same colored thread on the bobbin.
You don't have to change that each time which helps if you're using a lot of different colors.
As long as you get the tension right and the top thread just covers the underneath thread
you can have a different colored thread on your bobbin but have the same weight of thread
so that if you're using an ordinary sewing thread which I am doing then have that a similar
sort of thread on your bobbin wound underneath.
So that's just to give you the idea very roughly it's quite effective.
And here's a piece that one of my students did, Jan.
I think that's lovely isn't it she's cut away the whole house actually and darned across
there and just enjoyed herself done the smoke coming from the chimney made a tree trunk
with a little bit of ribbon couched down this lovely knobbly wall done a lot of free work
around here for the path and the flowers growing in the garden and I think that's very effective.
To do some applique which as you probably know is from the French word to apply one
fabric onto another and this is a dress which I've done for myself.
It's got a panel down the front which just lends itself to this sort of thing and this
is a furnishing fabric which I've used.
I didn't use any bonding I didn't bond the fabric onto the background I just cut out
the pieces, tacked them onto the background.
I did put a piece of organdy at the back to give it a little bit of body and then I've
worked it all in the hoop so that I've put my hoop up here done the stitching when I
finish that section then move my hoop down which is a little bit tedious but it does
keep the fabric good and taut while you're working and makes it easy to work.
The piece was actually stitched before the dress was made up and in a narrow little piece
like this I would probably just add another piece of cotton onto the yoke so that I could
get my hoop in that area and do some work and then move it along.
What I normally do with fabric which hasn't got any bonding on it or I'm not using any
bonding medium with it I would stitch from the inside out and usually on fabric there
is some sort of detail which you can use for straight stitching for instance in the leaves
I've worked the stem and the veins first in straight stitch.
I've done the same with the flowers I've worked from the centre outwards doing the straight
stitching and then last of all I've done the zigzagging round the edge and I've worked
the same way in each of these pieces.
Furnishing fabric is lovely to work with because they usually have quite big motifs and last
year and this year of course there are big flowers in the dress fabrics too so anything
like this with big motifs is very spectacular to use and easier to work with than very tiny
detailed pieces so I look out for fabrics like this which can be cut out and then arranged.
I don't need to use them in this order I can cut some of the leaves off if I wish to and
put them elsewhere and just make up in fact my own design.
Piece of fabric here with flowers in black and white and I just painted the centres which
I thought just lifted them up a little bit and I've cut a piece out here, here's one
motif.
I put some iron on violin on the back just to give it a little bit more body which you
can do if you find your fabric motifs are very floppy or also with stretch knit fabrics.
This for instance is a stretch knit fabric but I've bonded the iron on violin on the
back, I've ironed it on the back and that makes it quite stiff and much easier to use
and the same with t-shirt if you're working on the t-shirt you can always put a piece
of iron on violin behind the t-shirt and work on top of that and then pull away the excess
violin when you've finished.
So this is quite sturdy but I'm not going to stick it down onto my calico first, I'm
just going to stitch it cold as it were.
I should really tack it down but it's fairly stiff so I'm going to work with it as it is
and you can see on here that it's fairly plain, it's just got a little bit of green in the
middle but there are no details other than the centre to work to but I can make those
up myself if I wish and by doing more stitching from the centre outwards I'm holding the motif
in place before I come to do the edge stitching.
So what I would do, I'm still using my green thread which isn't quite the same colour as
the green in the middle but it will show up for you to see the stitching so I'm working
from the centre, I'm just doing straight stitching.
Obviously the further out that I take the stitching nearer the edge the more that it's
going to be held down so that it can't move so I'm working from the centre outwards.
Try not to work in very stiff lines, I'm just letting them flow a little bit to look natural
and that's held in place so now I'm going to go round and do the edges.
On a very intricate piece like this where the edge is very detailed it's very difficult
to work and do your zigzag stitch which I'm going to do now around the edge and keep it
going into the centre of the motif all the time in order to hold it down while at the
same time moving my hoop round, this is one instance where you can move your hoop round
if you wish, but getting the stitches close together because as you know from the beginning
that we are making the stitches close or far apart ourselves so if I want to make a lovely
satin stitch I have to concentrate on that at the same time ensuring that the stitches
are going into the centre and I find that very difficult to do even though I've had
quite a lot of practice I still find that very difficult to get a neat edge.
So what I've devised for myself and you might like to try this too, if you don't like the
method then practice with the stitches going into the centre all the time but I usually
go round my work twice so that I will work from the beginning here right the way round
in zigzag stitch but going in one direction only until I come back to the beginning then
I move my hoop, give my hoop half a turn and I go back and repeat the stitching but this
time ensuring that the second row of stitching goes across the first so I'll just show you
very quickly.
I'm not worrying here that the stitching isn't going into the centre and that won't hold
very well because I know I'm going to do another row of stitching on the top and it's that
second row which will hold that edge in there and you'll probably find that if you put your
foot down quite heavily on the foot control and work fairly quickly you'll get a much
neater edge than if you go slowly and try and do it very precisely.
If you miss little spaces don't worry too much, don't keep going back and working over
them again because you're building up the stitching all the time and it looks very bulky.
Just keep going and then especially if you're doing a second row of stitching you'll find
that all the edges will be covered.
So I've turned my hoop so that now the second row of stitching is going across the first
row.
Just to make sure, just do a couple by hand using the hand wheel at the side here and
making sure that they are going at right angles to the first row which they are.
Now I'm just going to work all the way around and come back to the beginning again.
Pass now for a few straight stitches on the swatch.
That's the way that I do most of my appliqué.
I go around twice and even though I'm working twice on my motif I find that that's much
quicker and as I know that the edging is anchored fairly securely I find it much quicker than
trying to get the stitches into the center each time.
But there is also on the market some bonding paper called Vlisafix.
On one side is tracing paper and on the other it's really just the dried glue and you can
cut out the shape of your motif exactly so that you don't get the glue all over your
ironing board.
Iron it onto the back of your motif, peel off the paper and then iron the motif directly
onto your background fabric.
Of course then it's already firmly stuck down, it can't move and any stitching you do from
the center is really just decoration and then you can go around and do the edging in a similar
way.
So I'll just show you how to draw around your motif on the paper and then I'll go and iron
it on the back.
So when you have the bonding paper you can feel that one side is rough with the glue
and the other side is quite smooth, that is a tracing paper.
You can either trace over your motif or you can put it on the top.
Do remember to reverse it, if it doesn't matter that it's going to be reversed on the eventual
fabric, it doesn't matter, but if you want it the same way up on the finished article
then reverse it on the paper.
Using a pencil, which is best to draw on the grease proof, just draw around the edge
and then cut it out.
Right, I've ironed the Vlisa Vicks onto the back of my motif here and I'm just going to
pull the paper away and that leaves it feeling quite tacky, but it's not.
It is ready to be ironed onto the back, but you can get various motifs to this stage if
you like, so that if you want to position some underneath the other then get them all
to the stage where you put the Vlisa Vicks on the back, peel the paper off and you can
position them wherever they are if you want to put some underneath the others and so on,
get them all to that stage and then iron them all on together.
So I'm going to iron that onto the back, onto the background fabric.
Just really take it out of the hoop, but I'm just trying to do it quickly.
And that is ironed on.
It's stuck on to the background and now we'll sew around the edge the same way that I've
done the other one.
I might just mention that if you have a motif such as a tree with fairly straight lines
or something that isn't quite as complicated as that edge, then you can use your normal
foot on your machine as usual, put the teeth up, leave the teeth up, your ordinary foot
on and set your machine to normal fattened stitch, which of course is a very close zig
zag and you'll get the zig zag worked automatically for you.
You don't have to do it in this free way, but as we're learning about free embroidery,
this morning, that's the reason I've shown you how to do it in a free way, like this
stretched in the hoop.
I thought I would show you how to make free standing leaves and flowers, not just stuck
down onto the background, but so that they stand up a little bit and they're raised.
And the only difference is that you work your flowers and your leaves first of all on the
colour of fabric that you want to use and then cut them out and stitch them onto your
background fabric.
If you don't feel confident enough to just work your leaves and flowers straight away
on the machine, there is a water soluble marking pen, which you can get from most craft shops,
and you can use that to draw your design or even trace if you have a rather transparent
fabric, trace or draw your motif onto your fabric first, work over the top and then any
lines which you haven't covered are erasable by water.
Just get another piece of fabric, damp it and rub it over the top and you'll find that
the lines will disappear, so that's marvellous to use.
I normally just do my outline in straight stitch straight away on the machine.
I just find it easier to draw with the needle in fact than with the pencil.
So I'll just do my outline in straight stitch first.
It's supposed to be a flower shape.
So I've either done it in straight stitch or I've drawn it and now I'm going to go around
it twice the way that I've just shown you, two lots of zigzag going at right angles to
each other.
So I set my machine to the width of zigzag that I want, not too wide to detract from
the motif, it's not a very big one, so I'm going to have about the medium sized zigzag
and I'm going to go around there twice.
Come back to the beginning, turn my hoop half a turn, make sure that my next row of stitching
is going at right angles to the first row and then go round again.
Right I've cut out the pieces, here there's a flower and a leaf and I'm going to attach
them onto the calico here.
If you have a darning foot at all it might be a good idea to use that on your applique,
it just holds the pieces together while you're working rather than the needle going through
two or three layers of fabric and then pulling out again tends to pluck up the fabric.
The one on the bonina has the spring in it so that it bounces up and down and it just
bounces over the fabric but it's just holding them together while you're working.
The same with free quilting, although you have your teeth lowered on the machine, just
by using your darning foot just holds your fabrics together and you're wadding when you're
working and makes it so much easier.
So just look to see if you have a spring darning foot and use that.
In fact you might just put it on this time and just see how we get on with it.
So I've drawn up the underneath thread and I'm just going to work from the center out
first.
Cut off my thread.
The less work you do in the center, the more the leaves will stand up of course.
If I work right to the edge then I'm flattening them down so I'm not going to go too far to
the edge, I'm just working from the center out a little way.
This also is where the French knots come in if you like.
You can do your little French knots straight, zigzag, straight.
Move to the next one.
Straight, zigzag, straight.
Touch the flower and the leaf onto the background fabric.
I've cut the threads between the French knots and if you look on the back there isn't much
stitching at all so this is a good method to use with t-shirts or knit fabrics because
you've done most of the work on the fabric first of all and then all you have to do is
to attach with very few stitches.
Another good effect is to use two or three sizes of flowers, perhaps a big one, a small
one, even perhaps a smaller one in the center.
Stitch them all together and then you get those three layers of leaves which can be
very effective.
The piece here is worked on very loosely woven fabric, it's just a scrim which is so loosely
woven that you can actually move the threads with your fingers and it's just a doodle
going round and round in straight stitch around the edge and then working a grid in zigzag
in the middle.
This was worked entirely in zigzag on the scrim and as I was working the zigzag across
the threads they moved together so some threads are pulled together and others are further
apart.
So this is worked in zigzag too but this time I changed the top thread to a green to work
out the branches and then used the brown to work the trunks and the roots at the bottom
and then I cut out the pieces in between.
The faces were just a doodle, they're just worked in one continuous line with the needle
just going on from one face onto the other and this too I found quite different because
if I'd been working in pencil on paper then I know for a fact that I would have been rubbing
out lines that I didn't think were in the right place and altering things as I went
along.
The butterfly is worked in acetate embroidery, that's just a free machining embroidery as
we've been doing on the calico but this time worked on acetate fabric, 100% acetate fabric
it must be and then that has been cut away, dissolved in acetone.
It dissolves away the acetate altogether just leaving you with the threads and so we've
got a lacy sort of butterfly and that can be just attached as this one has been by the
centre, by the body to give a three dimensional effect.
The tree is just rope covered with a boucle wall starting from the top and working downwards
and then the strands of the rope have been divided to get the roots and some of those
have pipe cleaners in the end, covered pipe cleaners so that they can be manoeuvred and
moved around and to stand out to give a three dimensional effect.
This is worked using pieces of fabric frayed out to give the flowers effect and then the
gum leaves, some of which are worked in straight stitch and the others are filled in with shaded
grey to give a lovely foreground effect and the others receding into the background.
This is worked in cable stitch which is a thicker thread wound by hand onto the bobbin
or the spool on the machine and this was actually worked from the other side so that when we
turned it over this was the effect that the thick thread had made on the surface of the
fabric which is very pleasant.
That's another lovely technique which can be used on the machine.
Embroidery.
For each of us the word conjures up particular images and I'm sure yours are as delightful
and fascinating as the many styles of embroidery practised all around the world.
Let's do it.
This program will show you how to get started, the materials you need, how to work a few
basic stitches and ways of using them.
Designs for embroidery are often found in magazines, leaflets and booklets, or they
can be bought in kit form.
And of course many people find great enjoyment in creating their own designs.
The range of fabric and thread you can use is endless, but for this program we are using
just a few items that are widely available.
Embroidery threads are made in a variety of textures and many exciting and beautiful colours.
Stranded cotton has a lustrous finish and is an extremely popular embroidery thread.
It's made up of six strands and is particularly versatile as it can be separated into various
thicknesses for different effects.
Stranded cotton, like all embroidery threads, offers a superb choice of colours which are
colourfast under normal washing conditions.
Pearl cotton has a more obvious twist which provides a different appearance in a design.
It also has a highly lustrous finish and offers an excellent range of colours in various thicknesses
which are available in either balls or skeins.
Soft embroidery cotton has a matte finish and is mostly used for bold designs on medium
or heavy fabric.
Cotton embroidery is an alternative embroidery thread with an attractive sheen and is particularly
popular in schools.
Though better known for tapestry work, tapisserie wool can give added variety and texture to
embroidery designs.
Some threads, such as stranded cotton, come in pull-free skeins.
The bands don't need to be removed.
The ideal length to use is about 45 centimetres as this avoids the yarn tangling or fraying.
As mentioned earlier, stranded cotton can also be divided into different thicknesses
for different effects.
The needle you use is important.
It should suit both the yarn and the fabric.
Needles with rounded points should be used for even weave fabrics as they slip easily
through the holes of the material.
But for a closely woven fabric, a sharp pointed needle is necessary to penetrate the material.
And the eye of the needle should be large enough for the thickness of the yarn.
Embroidery stitches can be worked without a hoop, but a hoop or ring keeps the fabric
taut and helps to maintain even tension in your work.
There are many styles of embroidery, but they all divide into two basic groups.
One thread embroidery and freestyle embroidery.
Looked at closely, a counted thread design has a geometric appearance.
That's because the stitches are given by the threads of the fabric.
The designs aren't drawn on the fabric.
You work instead for dime on squared paper.
Each stitch is worked over a precise number of threads.
Freestyle embroidery is just that.
As the name implies, the stitches are not restricted by the threads of the fabric.
Fabric can be bought with the design already printed on, but there are various ways of
doing this yourself.
You can use special dressmakers carbon paper, but a very common method is to use a hot iron
transfer.
The fabric around where the design will be should be covered with tissue paper to prevent
it being scorched by the heat of the iron.
With the ink side facing down, carefully pin the transfer in place.
Have the iron at hot, but don't use steam.
Press on the transfer for a few seconds.
Put iron back and forth, as this could smudge the design.
Before you remove it entirely, lift the corner to check that the transfer has taken.
As you are working a freestyle design, all the lines should be completely covered by
stitches.
With the exception of some synthetic fabrics, the lines will normally disappear when washed.
The stitches you'll see in this program aren't difficult, and can be used very effectively
to create these attractive items.
These counted thread designs are worked with just three simple stitches.
In counted thread embroidery, the stitches can be extremely decorative, but basically
they're all formed from simple vertical, horizontal, or diagonal stitches.
Cross stitch is very popular, and can be worked over different numbers of fabric threads.
To start your stitches, begin by inserting your needle into the fabric a suitable distance
from the beginning of your design, leaving a tail which can then be darned into the back
of the finished stitches.
As the name implies, cross stitches are made up by two diagonal stitches to form a cross.
The first half of the cross stitch is formed diagonally, in this case from left to right,
over three threads of the fabric.
For ease of working, a row of diagonal stitches is completed, and the cross stitches are finished
by working back over the first row stitches in the opposite direction.
It doesn't really matter in which direction you work, as long as you are consistent throughout
the design.
The second row of stitches is worked the same way as the first row.
Notice that the needle enters the same holes in the fabric as the previous row of stitches.
To finish your stitches, turn the work over and darn the end through the back of the stitches.
Do the same with any starting tails.
With the use of various colours, cross stitch is an effective way of creating both simple
and imaginative designs.
Satin stitch has been used for the hearts and leaves on this design.
Satin stitch is one of the easiest stitches to learn.
It's simply a series of straight stitches which is ideal for filling in solid areas
of colour.
The length of the satin stitch can be varied according to the design.
Satin stitch can also be worked in any direction.
In this design, the colours and the direction of the stitches have been combined to create
this leaf effect.
The honeycomb effect is in any direction and the leg is consistent, in this case over three
threads of the fabric.
To start the stitch, the needle comes through the fabric in advance of the stitch and is
worked backwards into the same hole as the previous stitch.
The delicate lines of back stitch contrast particularly well with the solid shapes embroidered
in satin stitch.
Counted thread embroidery has a simple charm which lends itself to many and varied designs.
These three designs demonstrate the versatility of freestyle embroidery and include some of
the stitches which you've already seen for counted thread embroidery.
Even the simplest straight stitch can be effectively used within a design.
The length of the stitch can be varied as appropriate to create additional interest.
With freestyle embroidery, the stitch follows and covers the printed lines on the fabric.
Satin stitch has a beautifully smooth appearance.
It's ideal for solid areas of colour such as the leaves shown on this design.
It's fascinating how a straight stitch can be used to create interesting shapes.
For a good result, it is essential to work the stitches closely together and keep the
edge as smooth and even as possible.
Satin stitch really highlights the beautiful sheen of stranded cotton.
Backstitch has many uses in freestyle embroidery.
Here it's used to pick out the delicate shape of the leaf.
With freestyle embroidery, backstitch is worked in exactly the same way as for counted thread.
The length of the stitches is controlled by the eye and not by the thread of the fabric.
As before, the stitches should be of a consistent length and cover the outline of the design.
This leaf shape is worked in stem stitch.
It's particularly attractive for the stems of flowers as an outline stitch and can also
be used for filling in shapes by working several rows closely together.
Stem stitches are worked in a single movement to obtain the raised and twisted effect of
the stitch.
Working from left to right, stem stitches are small, regular stitches which commence
at the halfway point of the previous stitch and are completed at a point further along
the line of the design, making sure that the stitches are of a regular length.
Notice that for the start of the next stitch, the needle comes through the same hole as
the end of the last but one stitch.
Notice also that the thread is held below the line of the stitch to maintain the regular
twisted effect.
In this flower, stem stitch is used to maximum effect.
Outline stitch, as the name implies, looks like a chain.
It's a very attractive outline stitch and can be used just as effectively as a filling
stitch.
To start the stitch, first make a loop, which is then held in place by the second stitch.
This is then held in place by the next stitch, and so on until the design is completed.
When you get to the final stitch, it must be held in place with a small straight stitch,
otherwise the whole line of chain stitches will unravel.
Very fine chain stitches can be worked by using only two or three strands of thread,
but you can always use more strands for a bolder effect.
Detached chain, or as it's sometimes called, lazy daisy, is a variation of chain stitch
in which each loop is worked individually to produce a pretty petal effect.
Notice how the stitch is held in place by a small straight stitch.
The detached chains have been used together in a row to give a lovely border effect.
As you've seen, these designs use only the stitches you have learned in this programme.
There are many ways of using the designs and you can create different effects by using
alternative colour schemes.
We've shown you just a few of the possibilities.
There are many, many more.
A world of beautiful designs, exquisite colours and fascinating techniques.
We hope you'll enjoy exploring them and that you'll find embroidery indeed a joy for life.
G'day, I'm Warwick Fuller.
I'm an outdoor painter.
I do the majority of my work out here.
I do a bit of work in the studio.
This is where I really get my inspiration.
This is what charges me up.
This is what keeps me painting.
Painting out here is great country.
I'm going to see if I can show you a few things this morning.
Things that can be easily taken for granted by somebody who's experienced, somebody who's
been painting for a while.
Things like mixing paint can be very simple when you've been painting for a little while.
It doesn't take a real lot, but getting a handle on it to start with can be quite a
daunting task.
Knowing what tone means.
Things like that.
Things that are really, they're a problem when you first start painting, but it doesn't
take long to really get a grasp of them.
So we're going to look at a few of those things here this morning while I paint out the subject
out here behind me.
When you paint outdoors, it's important to work quickly.
Light doesn't hang about and wait for you to do all the fiddly little things.
You've got to really get stuck into it.
You've got to know what you want to do before you start.
Get stuck into it and get it completed quick.
There's a lot of changes happening in the landscape.
The obvious ones are the moving shadows, shortening shadows or lengthening in the afternoon, but
there are a lot more subtle things that happen also.
Colors within the shadow, colors in the highlight, reflected colors.
There's so many things that change, so you've got to develop a technique and a means of
working quickly.
When you're painting the landscape, you should be prepared to be able to paint anywhere.
There are quite often problems associated with painting on highways, on the flight paths,
tourist routes under the harbor bridge for instance.
We're in a beautiful spot here right now and we don't have too many problems apart from
the odd plane flying overhead.
But you've got to develop a method of being able to concentrate at a level where you don't
let those things affect the way you're painting.
They don't break your concentration.
Concentration is everything when you're painting a landscape.
Let's have a look at some of the materials and equipment that I use.
They can make a difference to the way you paint.
When you're outdoors, you want to be painting as quickly as you can.
You see something that inspires you, you want to be able to start putting paint on canvas
as soon as you can.
You don't want to be running around with boxes of equipment and bits of this and bits of
that.
Some of the things that I've gathered around me over the years have helped to speed up
that process.
The main thing being is the French easel.
I'll fold this out for you and show you how quickly it is that you can be set up and painting.
Unfolding a French paint box takes a few minutes, but it's a lot faster than having a little
tripod and a cardboard box full of paint and all those sorts of bits of paraffin.
It carries everything you want and you can be up and painting in next to no time.
Within about 30 or 40 seconds, we're all set up, ready to start painting.
Haven't lost sight of what I want to paint here.
The morning's still the same as it was 40 seconds ago and we're ready to go.
We'll have a look at some of the materials I use when I'm painting.
I'll start out showing you some of the paint, run through the colors that I use and then
we'll have a look at a few of the other items.
I use a couple of different brands.
I use Art Spectrum and Winsor & Newton, both in the artist quality.
It's important to use artist quality, consistency of texture and your consistency of quality.
It's a false economy, generally speaking, to use a student quality because the pigment
is a lot stronger in these and they go a lot further.
I use Art Spectrum's French Ultramarine Blue, Winsor & Newton's Viridian, Winsor & Newton's
Burnt Sienna, Winsor & Newton Cadmium Scarlet, Art Spectrum's Permanent Crimson, Winsor & Newton's
Winsor Yellow, Winsor & Newton Yellow Ochre and Art Spectrum's Titanium White.
I use a range of paintbrushes.
They're all hog bristle, excluding one.
That's a synthetic sable.
I don't know what the brand is.
I can't read it now.
I don't use that very much.
Basically, it's to sign my name and maybe the odd twig or two on a fine branch.
The less detail the better.
And so the less you use one of those sables, the better also.
In fact, I couldn't get one with a long handle and I had to splice a longer handle onto it
so I could manipulate that the way I prefer to.
With the hog bristle brushes, I work in a range from about a size 6 in the flats up
to a size 10.
Now, these are Roy Mack Series A 1300B.
The newer brushes, that one there for instance, with the longer bristle is better when you've
got a hot day or when your paint is fairly thin and you can push it around very easily.
When you get down to a shorter bristle, as that one is there, you can see that there's
a fair difference in the size that's worn down to.
That's far better used on a cold day or when you've got fairly short or stiff paint.
I use a couple of, what is that, Nart Basics Round Series O. I use that size there quite
a lot for finer detail work.
That's much better to use for fine lines.
You get a far better character of line than you do when you're using a sable brush.
Any other brush I use, I use occasionally on a big board if I want to get washes down
in a hurry.
Don't even know, oh, that's an Eterna.
That's just a cheap brush, very broad, a little bit stiff at this stage, but that'll loosen
up as soon as you start to work it, but that'll get a good broad wash down very quickly on
a larger canvas.
I use pure gum turps for all of my painting.
I've got a container that I made up that'll fit neatly into my paint box.
The palette fits neatly over it.
There's still room left for large tubes of paint here.
When I say I use pure gum turps for all of my painting, I don't bother with mineral turps
for washing my brushes.
For the small amount of turps that I use out in the field, it doesn't make much difference.
I've got a single turps pot on my palette.
That's because I only use one type of turps.
I keep pure gum turps, and that's good enough for my washes and washing my brushes.
It simplifies things to have one turps rather than different containers and different types
of turps and other mediums around the place.
Another piece of equipment I use is the standard palette knife.
I use that for not much more than cleaning the palette up, scraping paint off.
Occasionally, I might need to scrape a bit of paint off a painting.
When I go painting outdoors, I need something to carry my wet paintings in if I go away
for a week or two, and I've got a good handful of paintings.
Now, that box there will carry 15 by 18s and smaller sizes.
I'll just slide it in.
I can put two wet paintings back to back in each of those slots, so I can carry a good
clutch of pictures there.
I've got a couple of larger boxes.
This is about my standard box.
That carries up to 18 by 30.
Generally I carry 18 by 24s in that, and I can carry about 20 wet paintings, I think
22 wet paintings at a time.
Very handy box.
It's got a lid that goes over the face of it.
For in dusty weather, I can keep the majority of dust out of the wet paintings.
I do have a larger container also, which can carry up to 24 by 30.
I use a number of different supports on which to paint.
One that I don't use much of these days, but I have used it.
That's a three-ply cedar panel, I call it a panel.
It's a piece of three-ply finished with a cedar laminate.
That's very good to work on, a lovely rich color.
I sometimes put a linseed oil coating over that and allow that to dry before I paint,
but quite often just work straight onto that cedar.
Another support is three-ply backing, or more commonly these days I use masonite backing.
But whatever the board is, I glue a canvas to it.
This is just a cotton canvas.
If I'm stretching canvas, I'll use a good linen canvas.
On these hard boards, I just use a cotton canvas, glue that down.
It's a simple procedure.
Another canvas I might show you, or another support, is once again, it's the cotton canvas
laid down on masonite or three-ply.
But then I put a textured coating over that.
I put a finish on it.
I make it myself similar to the commercial gassos, and that gives me a little bit more
truth, a little bit more bite on which to work.
When starting a painting, three important considerations.
I can lump just about everything I do in mechanical terms into three headings.
It's a way of simplifying things so that I can keep control of what I'm doing and keep
a handle on all the complexities that go into a painting.
Those three things are tone, color, and drawing.
If you think of all the aspects of the painting as fitting in one of those three categories,
you can usually get control of the whole painting fairly quickly and fairly easily.
Let's look at tone first.
When you think of tone, you may or may not realize that we're simply talking about light
to dark, black to white, if you like.
In analyzing tone in the landscape, simple methods that I use are basically squinting
by closing one eye and closing your other eye down so you're basically looking through
your eyelashes.
It simplifies the subject, and you can see the big objects.
You can see a roof in the landscape.
You can see the highlights on the side of a tree.
You can see dark against light, and that's what we're talking about here, tone.
Another handy little thing to keep in mind, always wear a hat.
There's a couple of reasons for that.
One of the most, though, relates to tone.
I mean, it keeps the sun off my ears, but basically, to see tone accurately, if you've
got sunlight shining in your face, when you're painting into the light, more so than direct
light, the light coming down can really affect the way you see tones.
It causes your eye to close down so it's not taking in the same degree of light, and you
don't see tone accurately.
It tends to make the tones go dark.
You don't see into the shadows.
Important factors to think about when you're mixing color is you need some sort of a basic
understanding of the principles of color.
By looking at the theory of color, it won't help you just race out and mix the colors
that you want when you paint a picture, referring mentally to a color wheel.
But by using a color wheel and working with it rigorously and being really critical in
your analysis of color while developing or painting a color wheel, you can develop a
good understanding of what color is.
You can develop a sensitivity towards color.
Now, color in its simplest terms, I mean, there's many ways of looking at color.
There's many color theories, many different sorts of color wheels.
But I think of color, I think of the three primaries of red, yellow, and blue when you're
talking about pigment.
And because I'm not using a specific middle of the road red, and the same with the yellow,
and the same with the blue, the sort of color wheel that I would get if I'm using the colors
on my palette won't necessarily be the same as what you'd get if you're using a different
set of primaries.
The position of the paint on the palette is not so important where it goes on the palette,
but I think that it's important that you're consistent with where you put it on the palette.
You want to be able to work intuitively.
When you're working quickly outdoors, you want to just be able to grab a bit of paint
and not have to think about which one it is you're going for.
You want blue, you know where you're going to go for it.
In mixing color, it takes a long time.
Well, it takes forever to get colors the way you want them.
You'll never be satisfied with getting the colors exactly right.
But you've got to strike a balance.
You can mix colors for 15 minutes to get a single color to go on one little point on
the canvas.
You might be very happy with that, but in the big picture, if you'll pardon the pun,
you're not going to end up with everything you want because you've spent so long getting
each little piece in it.
You've got to strike a balance somewhere.
The third in the trilogy of what I consider to be important factors in painting is drawing.
Now, drawing in its strict sense means a line describing perspective, shapes of objects,
enclosing them in a line.
And I tend to think of drawing in terms of the painting as describing where objects are,
their shape.
And I generally don't use a charcoal or a pencil to get the drawing on the canvas right.
I tend to use a brush.
I get the drawing going while I'm putting my washes down.
An ordinary brush will do that.
You can get a few marks in to give you a bit of a feel for your composition.
Start to lay the picture out, get it working the way you want it to compositionally.
But really, you need to get your washes down fairly quickly and get that canvas covered.
You can use those washes to do all the drawing that you need really.
If you start fiddling too much with line drawing, it starts to get in the way of your working
while you're moving on further through the painting.
You start to get worried about going over edges and painting things over the top of
work that you've already laid down.
I find that washes generally will do everything you need related to your drawing to get you
going in the painting.
Now, looking at those three basic principles, we've got tone, color, and drawing.
In real terms, when you're painting, you don't want to be thinking too much about it.
It's a good idea that every time you mix a bit of paint on the palette and raise it
to put it on the canvas, you ask yourself these three questions.
Is it the right tone?
Is it the right color?
Am I putting it in the right place?
If you think of it in those terms, it becomes second nature to ask yourself those things
and then you won't do that forever, but it's a good way of forcing the discipline of getting
it as right as you can get it.
Every time you mix that bit of paint, as you're putting it on the canvas, you say to yourself,
is that the right color?
Is it the right tone?
Am I putting it in the right place?
Now, in mixing the wash, it's important, if possible, to get the sun on your board so
you can see the true colors and tones that you're mixing.
I like to keep the canvas in shadow, so if you can move the easel to a configuration
that will allow you both of those, that's where you're at your best.
Now, basically I'm going to take a bit of blue and a bit of the cool red, the permanent
crimson, mix those and then I'm going to pick up turps, pure gum turps I have in that turps
pot there.
I don't use much at all in the way of mediums, but pure gum turps is what I use to break
the paint down for the washes.
I use the paint straight from the tube when I'm painting the picture.
Now the color is not critical for me at this stage.
The most important factor is getting the tone right.
Now I've just mixed up one of the darkest tones I've got here.
I'll just use that if we have a look at the board here to get a bit of a quick feel for
the overall composition.
I'm going to run the hill down here, put that tree in the foreground somewhere about there
and then run the hills in behind that.
So I've just given myself a bit of an indication as to what the compositional aspects of the
painting are.
Now I'll just think a little bit more about the color I've got here.
That tree in the foreground, very dark, it's the darkest tone in the picture, that's this
tree here.
Then the hill behind, there's a slope there with shadows running down from trees up high,
that's the next darkest tone.
Then there's a middle distance hill out the back there which runs through here, that's
going lighter still and then distant hills behind that.
So that's the basic layout of the painting.
Now looking at the tree in the foreground, I'll mix a little Viridian in with that blue
and red mix.
Now these washes can be used in various ways.
You may well paint over all of the wash that you put on the canvas.
There'll be places where the tone and the color of that wash is just right and you can
leave that as it is on the canvas and you won't have to do any work over it.
So the closer you get your color and tone right and put it in the right place, the less
work you'll need to do with it later.
Now that's still got a bit of a purple hue about it.
I don't know how that relates to you against the white canvas but that's getting somewhere
near the darkest darks within the shadow of that tree.
Now I look into the shadows of that tree and I see green, certainly it's a fairly green
tree but within the shadows of those dark areas I find it very difficult to analyze
the color accurately but I know that it is cooler than the green so I'll stick with this
purply sort of green.
Now I'll just shape it up a little bit, get something like the shapes that I see out there
on that tree seeing as they are nice shapes.
I'm not doing that by rate, I like what I see there so I'll include that.
Shadows running down from that continuum down the slope.
Now you see that I've put these tones on the shadow side of that tree but I'm going to
also include those dark tones right over to the highlight there's other little bushes
in front of that but basically they're all in the same family of colors and tones.
It's getting a bit purple, I'll add a little bit more Viridian to that and maybe just the
slightest touch of Yellow Ochre to take a bit of the rawness out of that purple.
Basically that's it.
Now there is another tree, looks like an old Hickory Wattle sticking up behind here but
I won't include that, that's just complicating the whole picture a bit.
I like that dead tree by the way, I don't want to put it in right out of the picture
here I might include that running up in front of that tree there so I'll just try that up
there now.
One of the important factors in putting these washes down is to get rid of this white canvas.
The colors that I've put in here are very difficult even now to allow me to work out
what accurately work out what color that should be in tone.
I'm trying to cover the whole canvas and I'm trying to cover that fairly quickly so I'm
doing that as near as I can and then I'll make minor adjustments or refine those colors
and tones as I move further into the painting.
Now I'm just going to add a little bit of white to that existing mix.
If you can see what I'm doing there I've just lightened the tone of that now this will come
with experience.
You might say well how much do you lighten it?
I don't know how much, well I know how much by looking at it and deciding that it is going
to be a little bit lighter.
I might come back and make adjustments to these tones but for now that shadow is running
down the hill.
There's a bush there in full shadow which gives me a good strong tone to work to running
up and then a few trees.
I won't place too much emphasis on those trees up there maybe running around here.
So even with this wash stage you can see I'm developing the drawing somewhat.
I don't have to get too panicky about getting things just right.
I don't slow the process down by making sure I get that branch in and move that little
bit over an eighth of an inch or a couple of millimeters.
I just get things in generally where I think they should go at this stage.
That shadow is fairly solid there with some light of trees against it.
So now that tone I've just created I've added a little white to the wash so that it is lighter
than the darkest tone.
Now what I should do at this stage is just wipe a bit of that paint off the brush and
I'll establish one of the lightest tones up the back so I've got boundaries within which
to work.
So I've just taken a bit of white, I put a little bit of blue with that and just the
slightest bit of my cool red, that permanent crimson.
Now I'm taking a bit of a guess here because I'm still working on the white canvas and
I'm not sure on the tone of the sky but simply by experience I'm looking at that sky and
I can see that it's got a bit of body about it.
The sky is not real washed out.
I can see a bit of cloud out there and that helps me work out what the tone of the sky
is.
With that I know I've got to go a little darker for the back hills.
I'll just adjust that slightly, a little more blue and a little more red, try that there.
Looks a little bit pretty at the moment, putting it against that white canvas.
I think that I'm probably not too far off the mark.
When I say pretty I was using two of the three primaries which secondary colour becomes a
little bit purer but it'll be fairly close to the mark and I can make adjustments to
it afterwards anyway if need be.
Now I'm not deciding yet exactly what's going to happen in there but it'll be something
like that.
Now the middle ground in very broad terms is going to be somewhere between the tone
I've got in the foreground and that back tone there.
So very quickly I'll use a bit of that first wash and a bit of the last wash, get a combination
somewhere between.
There's all sorts of things going on in there but I'm not going to get too concerned about
where the trees are and where their shadows fall.
I'll simply get the mass of that area in.
Now that tone is going to get darker as it comes down because from the distance there
might be a kilometre, the distance at the bottom of that hill might only be half a kilometre.
So there will be some variation from top to bottom there but it's not a great variation.
I won't worry too much about it right now.
I'll just get that all washed in.
So it's very easy to make adjustments.
What I'm doing there is doing a bit of work with the drawing as well as getting the tone
into the picture.
Somewhere like that I think might work okay.
Now what I'm doing here is mixing a bit of the blue and a little bit of the permanent
crimson but I'm putting more yellow oak in it.
So you can see I'm using a bit of the three primers which is going to make a more neutral
colour than it would if I were just using two.
Now there's a lot of interesting things going on in that foreground.
I don't want to get too caught up in what's happening in that foreground at this stage.
I'll just keep it fairly simple.
Let's see how we go for colour there.
I'll keep it a fairly simple sky.
Little greener.
I think I can go add a bit more yellow.
Perhaps even a little further than that.
I think that might be somewhere near the mark.
Let's have a look there.
I can just keep a nice simple sky in this case here so we can get on with the next phase
of the painting.
I'll add a little more red as we get a bit higher.
It should be alright.
I'll just see how that looks.
I think that's about right.
I haven't worried about where I put those washers in for the dead tree.
I'm just going to paint straight over that.
Just quickly soften that in.
I'm mixing a bit of the basic sky colour.
I've added a little blue.
Put a little more in.
A little more permanent crimson.
I'm going to work on the background hills now, those distant hills.
They're fairly atmospheric.
I don't want to get this too dark in tone.
Looking at my wash, I see that I've probably gone a little dark with the tone of the wash
now that I have the sky in.
I'll just try this paint on there.
I've mixed that to about the tone of the original wash.
I'll lighten my mix with a little white.
Try that.
I think that's closer to the tone I'm looking for.
I think I might be a little blue.
I'll just add a touch more red to that.
I think I'm going to be pretty right with it now.
I don't want to be too sharp on the horizon.
I'm not going to have a lot of detail in this, but I want to keep a fairly soft edge.
Once I get the paint on, I'll work some of those edges in a little better than that.
Just a touch.
The next hill in front runs down fairly steeply.
I'm going to build that up a little bit more.
This hill being slightly closer is going to be a little darker in tone.
It's also going to be a little richer.
There are a few things that happen in nature that are almost, you could call a rule in
the landscape here in Australia anyway.
I found that with color, the first color that disappears in the distance is yellow.
The next color that disappears is red, and that leaves blue.
Blue generally is the most distant color you'll see.
Then as things get closer, more red is introduced.
As you get closer again, you start to see the yellows, which really means that trees
or grass in the foreground that may have red and yellow in them, oranges or variations
of orange, will be less orange as you go back.
They'll become more pink or mauve because the blue is still in there.
Then as you get further back, you hardly even see the red in your highlights.
The next closest hill to us now is going to have a little more red in it than the distant
hill and just a little bit of yellow in it.
I'm going to add that to the mix I previously made, a little more red and the slightest
little touch of yellow.
Now, it sounds like I'm painting by theory here, but when I look out there, that's the
sort of thing I am seeing.
I've added a little more white now because I think that I made it a bit dark.
I'll just test that.
No, a little more blue, a little more red and just a touch of yellow.
We'll see how that goes.
This is just the basic color and tone that I'm putting down and I'll do a little bit
more work on it perhaps.
Now that is about the tone of the original wash.
Now I think I may still be a little too blue there.
Yes, I am.
I'll add a little more red and just a touch more yellow.
Try that.
I think that's going to be around about it.
There is an interesting shape of that bluff out the end there.
I might bring that up a bit.
There's a vertical drop off there.
Break into that tree a little bit, soften the edges of the wash, shape up that hilltop
a little.
Now I'm going to look at getting the highlights over that.
The highlights are really not existent in the distant hill, but this hill being closer
to us, I can just discern a variety of tone.
I can see a highlight tone over this color that I've just put down.
Now the work that I've just done has basically been the shadow tone.
So now I'm going to work on the mix that I have on the pallet here.
I'm going to lighten that and I'm going to warm it up slightly.
It takes a little bit of experience to be able to mix paint fairly easily without having
to go backwards and forwards and backwards and forwards with it, but if you use plenty
of paint, it's a lot easier to mix those colors.
It's easier when you're picking up an amount to mix into a large quantity of paint to get
that mixture just right and you can make adjustments a lot more easily.
Now I'm mixing the highlight for that bluff area, that hill coming out to the bluff.
I've used the basic blue that I'd already mixed.
I've added a little more permanent crimson and just a touch more yellow.
Now I'll just try that on there and see if it looks like it's close to what I want.
I could go a little lighter than that, so I'll add a bit more white and just a little
bit more color.
So it's more permanent crimson and just the slightest touch of yellow.
We'll see how that looks.
Yeah, I think that's going to be about right.
We'll take a bit more on there before I can really decide whether there's enough color
in it.
Now I think I can go a little more color, so just a little more red, a little more yellow.
I think that's going to be about it.
Now I don't want to obliterate the blues underneath.
There's a lot of broken color there, so just very gently and delicately laying that over
the top.
The highlight runs around the bluff of this and fades as it comes around the fullness
of the bluff area.
There's highlight on the top of the bluff and there's a vertical rock face runs through
there, so there's not going to be much highlight picking up on that except for where it picks
up the bluffs themselves.
Now I'm going to add a little more white and a little more color to this and with the same
brush I'm just going to put a couple of little notes of highlight where the sun might be
striking the rock faces.
There's a little bit more light on the bluff as it runs around the back here.
This middle distance hill is basically grass covered with some timber on it.
Nice shadows being cast down from the timber.
I'm going to introduce a little yellow ochre now.
We're getting a bit closer to the foreground.
I'm going to use a little yellow ochre.
It still requires a bit of blue and a little permanent crimson.
I don't know how this is going to go, we'll see.
I'll just try that on the board and see what happens.
No, that's too cool.
A little more crimson and a little more ochre.
I'll just have a look at that and see how that stands up.
Perhaps a bit strong.
Now strong in color really means impurity of color.
I think that'll be okay.
If I'm thinking that it's a bit too strong it's usually because there's not enough of
the third primary in.
If it's strong it means there's one primary or maybe two primaries that give you a more
pure color.
By introducing more of that third primary you're getting closer to the center.
If you think in terms of a color wheel you're getting closer to neutral color which means
there's less strength in the color, less strength of pure color.
I think that's going to be pretty well right, that color and tone that I've selected there.
That looks okay.
Now I don't want to obliterate all those darker tones of the wash.
There's a nice big copse of trees here and the hill's falling into shadow as it comes
down.
I won't do too much there at the moment.
I think I might keep this hill undulating up so I'll come back over the top of some
of the things that I've put there.
I won't get too much of that grass in because there's plenty of timber up on that hill.
There's another hill running down the slope here still picked up in highlight.
I'm leaving some of the canvas coming through, some of the washes coming through the highlight.
These washes are coming through because of the texture of the canvas.
I don't have any texture over the canvas board, that's just the texture of the canvas itself
as allowing the paint to break up.
By pressing the brush firmly I would obliterate that broken color but I'm just laying that
down fairly gently so that the color of the original wash will break through the paint.
Now the trees and the shadows on the ground cast by the trees basically are the same tone.
There's highlights on the trees which will be a couple of tones lighter but the bulk
of the tree in shadow will be almost the same tone as the shadow on the ground.
I could just use the washes to describe those shadow areas but I think what I will do is
to mix a bit of this tone and color in a full bodied paint and lay over that so I can develop
the shapes of the trees a little more easily.
Now I've only used one brush up to this stage but I'm starting to get to the point where
I'm getting quite a variety of tone and color so I'm going to need to go to another brush
now so that I don't have to clean the brush to go back to this tone again.
So I'm going to take some more blue, a little white, red and in that shadow area there's
not going to be very much yellow.
I'll just see how this goes against the wash.
I think the tone of the wash is pretty well right as it is.
So I've got the tone pretty well right that may be just a little bit dark.
I'll just put a touch more white in.
That's probably not too bad.
Now this area up in here I'll shape up the trees as they break out into the cleared paddock
and run up over the hill line there.
Trees run down behind that hill and there are also trees breaking over the hill.
I'll put a few individual trees in.
There's shadows running down that hill.
Now I'll just darken this tone up a little bit because we are getting closer in.
A little blue and a little more red.
See how that goes.
That's okay.
It does stay fairly atmospheric down in that valley.
I don't want to get too dark or I'll end up close and turn to the foreground and lose
the atmosphere.
That'll do.
Now over this side I have fairly big cups of trees.
It's really a matter of working backwards and forwards.
We're going to have to cut highlight back in amongst the shadow areas until we get the
whole thing working the way we want it.
I'll take the other brush and just cut a bit of highlight back into there and see how that
looks.
There's shadows running down the hill.
The trees in here will become more evident when we get the highlights in but I'll explain
that in a moment.
That little area divided up there with light cutting down between a few trees.
Now the color that I've mixed is a little more pure in color than the distant hills
in color but I'm being careful not to get too strong, too pure at this stage because
I've got to allow room for the highlights in the foreground.
I've come forward in color there.
It's a little stronger but it's still sitting back adequately.
Now I've got to be careful.
One of the fatal flaws I see in people just starting out is to obliterate everything that's
under it.
Now we've got to remember there's not only shadows on the hillside, there's the shadows
of the trees themselves.
Only a fairly small percentage of that shadow tone is going to be covered by highlight.
There are trees running up along the top of the ridge there casting their shadows down.
There are very few trees that are getting caught by highlight.
There might be one or two where the sun gets through.
I'll just put a few little hints of highlight there and then the next echelon of trees down
the hill are picking up sunlight so I'll include a little more light in those but keeping
it broken, allowing a lot of that shadow tone to come through.
Not quite painting individual trees but just getting a bit of broken light there which
will describe the whole variety of foliage and things happening.
A little bit of highlight up around where those individual trees are and then the same
over on this side of the hill where it runs over the ridge.
Sun's catching it quite strongly.
A lot of shadow tone is lost there but as it wraps around the side of the hill there's
more shadow in through the foliage.
Just a little bit of feeling your way as you go here.
Don't get too carried away and try and get everything covered up.
There's not a steep hill and there's quite a bit of sun getting down into that hill but
I won't go too far.
The day is getting on.
The sun's raising higher and covering more of those shadows but I'm working towards that
morning light and I don't want to get too far away from it.
If I chase the light for too long I'm going to end up with three pictures in one and it
won't be anything.
Now that the sky and background, the middle distance are all established I'm going to
be able to very accurately assess the tone and colour of the foreground area.
So first thing that I've got to do is get the areas of wash covered in not an impasto
paint but get some paint down to be able to work my middle colours, my middle tones and
highlights into.
So we'll mix those colours now and see how we go.
I'm going to mix a tone here that will suit those trees on the skyline on the horizon
of the foreground there.
I'm mixing blue with a little or quite a bit of permanent crimson and just a little yellow
ochre.
I've added a small amount of white to that bringing the tone back.
I don't want to make this so dark.
I want to reserve my darkest tones for the foreground tree or the tree closest to the
foreground.
I'll just try that.
Ok that looks about right I think I'll go with that.
There's very little sunlight getting at these trees at the moment, a few little highlights
on the tips.
Basically the whole tree will be painted in this shadow tone.
I'm going to start shaping those trees up now.
I don't want to work too much into the sky at this stage but I'll just get some paint
onto those previously painted washes once I'm happy that I've got the colour and tone
about right then I'll start refining and developing the whole area up.
The shadow from that tree line runs down the hill giving a nice solid dark tone against
the more atmospheric back hills.
That's looking pretty good for tone.
Nice solid shrub sitting up there.
I think that's going to be good.
Righto I'll start working those tree shapes up now.
I can work back up into the sky a little bit.
I don't want to mix that too much and soften the colours right out.
I don't want to change the tone of these dark trees, the foliage on them.
But I'll just work some of the soft tree shapes up.
I don't want to make too much out of these trees.
I don't want to draw the eye too much up into the corner of the painting.
At the same time I want to get some nice shapes, some things that are happening there.
Pick up some of the trunks and foliage that are running up into the tree line, up into
the foliage line.
Define a few of the trunks.
That's probably almost enough.
A little window of sky there is a bit distracting.
I'll knock that back a little bit.
Just tidy up some tree shapes.
Just link that together.
I've got to be careful here, strike a balance between getting some of the interesting things
happening there and not getting too detailed, not getting too defined in these areas.
I don't want to draw the eye too much to these areas.
Just soften that a little.
Probably is a little too much going on there.
I'll take a bit of paint off the brush, soften that, maybe even pick up a little bit of sky.
Soften that.
By picking up that sky you can see I'm losing the tone of that shadowed timber.
I'll have to put a bit more of that dark tone back over, but I won't have that same busy
edge to it as I did before I painted sky back into it.
I'll work this area up a little more here.
The shrub is fully in shadow.
There's not going to be any highlights on that.
It'll be a nice solid dark mass, as I said, against that atmospheric background.
Just get some nicer shapes, it's a fairly round sort of shrub.
I'll break it up a little bit.
Stepping back regularly to assess it as a whole and not concentrate too much on the
little area you're working on.
You've got to make sure that the whole thing works.
Okay, I'll run the shadows down the hill a little further now in preparation for working
highlights back into it.
I'll just bring the color and tone of the underpainting down now, but this foreground
area is going to be basically in sunlight.
I don't want to lay on too much of this shadow color and tone.
I still do want to lay it down and I want to keep the shadow running around the roundness
of the hill.
Now, I'll make this a little darker because it's getting closer to me.
I'm going to mix a little more, make it darker and probably a little more red in it and a
little more yellow.
So, it will be more neutral in color.
It won't be as purple or as pure in color because I'll have the three primaries mixed
in.
A little more red, a little more blue.
It's a little darker in tone now.
More red and just a little more ochre, perhaps a bit more than that.
A little more red.
I think I should be somewhere near it there.
We'll give that a try.
Yes, I'm going to need to mix a color to be a transition between the tone and color.
I've already put down on this new one, so I'll pick up a little bit of what I have left.
By placing that with the newly mixed tone, I can get a reasonable transition.
If I pick up the new color and tone that I've just mixed, that's going to run in fairly
well.
Just putting that on pretty dry there now.
I'm going to scrub that in fairly dry.
Not worrying about covering completely the tone of the wash underneath.
There's nothing wrong with that tone.
I'm working with a plain canvas here and so the texture, the difference between what I'm
painting on now and the original wash is fairly bland, but it's still very usable.
There is some of that original wash coming through and I don't mind that.
I quite often, in fact almost exclusively paint on a canvas board with texture on it,
but this works just as fine, particularly on the smaller canvases.
Just work the two tones a little more into each other, soften one to the other.
That has a feeling of distance of the hill going away from us.
While I'm establishing the tones and colors of the shadow areas in the foreground, I'm
going to develop this tree up at the same time and then I'll start working the highlights
up at the whole of that foreground.
The tone of the foreground tree is going to be a little darker than the tone I've already
mixed for the shadow areas of the foreground, so I'm going to add a little more blue.
I'm running out of tones.
Actually on a scale of one to ten, I'm probably getting up to about eight or nine here now.
More red still and I'm going to take some more yellow.
No, I won't use a yellow ochre.
I'm going to take a little winzy yellow.
It's a stronger yellow and it's going to make the shadow areas more colorful.
That's very green at the moment.
I'm going to add a little more permanent crimson.
That's looking pretty good.
It's a little darker than the foliage, the ground cover in the foreground.
I want that tree to be nice and solid in tone, the darkest darks of it.
I've basically got the shadow area of that tree covered, not completely.
Some of the original washes are still coming through.
Some of the original wash colors are a little red perhaps, but they're adding another dimension
to the colors within that shadow area.
Within the solid shadow area, I can see some what I'd almost call highlights in shadow.
There are bits of foliage that are closer to me and they're lighter in tone with a little
more color.
I'm going to pick up a little Viridian, a little yellow ochre.
The yellow ochre is light enough in tone that I think will raise the overall tone of that
shadow area.
I'll just test that.
Now, it could still be a little lighter.
I'm just going to add a touch of white to lighten that tone.
Now that I've done that, I can see that it's perhaps a little bit neutral in color.
When I say neutral, it's got a little bit dead.
There's a little more life in those shadows.
I'll bring in a little Winsor yellow, which is a nice potent sort of a yellow rather than
being an earthy yellow as the yellow ochre is.
A little more of that and then perhaps just a little more Viridian.
There's a nice bit of color there now.
I'll try that.
I think that might be pretty close to it.
Yes, that's looking okay.
I'll now work up a few of those bits of foliage that are standing out against the darkest
darks.
Now, there's this other bush which works beautifully in front of the main wattle back there.
It's got a lighter shadow tone and it has a milky look about it.
So I might be lucky here and be able to just add a bit of white to that previously made
mid-shadow tone.
That's a little bit too light in tone.
I'll just take a bit of the original color back into what I've mixed, darken that down
a bit.
That's a little dark again.
I think I might be better off with that tone there.
That's not too bad.
Break that down in.
I'm just working that up, trying to get some shape into there now very gently because I'm
working this tone into the darker tone behind.
I don't want those to melt into each other too much.
I'm just gently touching that brush on the surface so it'll pick up that tone without
mixing too much.
I'm now going to start work on the highlights of the main tree, get the foliage working.
Once the highlights start going on, I can get the feel of the shape, the body of the
tree, start developing it up as a solid mass.
I'll work a few windows into it.
That'll help develop the shape also.
So for the highlight, let's have a look now.
It's a fairly green sort of a foliage.
Start off with white.
Some Winsor Yellow, blue, and a little Cadmium Scarlet, which I've not used in this painting
so far.
I want strong color now in this foliage, but I don't want to get too pure.
I'll reserve the real pure color for the brightest highlights on that foliage.
Now I've gone a little bit too gray there, so I'll introduce a little more yellow, a
little Cad Scarlet.
I'll just try that.
I think I'm going to need...
That might be somewhere near it.
I might just go a little more Viridian.
Now although I'm talking about the highlight, I'm still dividing the highlight up into a
couple of categories.
The highlight has a cooler area as it gets closer around to the shadow, so I'm going
to try this first without getting too close to the edge.
The color is not so evident against the brighter sky, so I'll use that also up here in the
top of the tree.
Now I'll look at the main shapes of this foliage.
I see a nice big area around here.
I'm still fairly delicately touching that onto the previously painted mid-shadow tone.
That's probably about it.
I'm going to introduce a little more brighter, purer color to that, but that's probably sufficient
at this stage.
Notice I'm not laying into it too heavily.
I don't want to lose all the darks that I've previously painted.
I want some of those shadow tones to break through the foliage.
There's another nice massive foliage lower down.
Once again, I've got another tree, another shrub in front, which is a different color.
I don't want to lose all the darks between the two of them.
Just soften that in a little there.
There's just one or two points where the light strikes a little bit of foliage that sticks
out somewhat.
You've got to be careful not to get carried away with these little touches and dabs.
I'm going to now develop the highlight colors a little further.
I'm adding a little more yellow, a wintzy yellow, into the previous highlight mix.
The brighter highlights are a little warmer, so with that yellow I'm adding a little cadmium
scarlet, not too much, and it's a little lighter, so I'm adding a little more white.
See how that looks?
That's a bit milky, so more red, more yellow.
I don't want to get too orange here.
It is a fairly green bush.
That looks all right.
That's not too bad at all.
Let's see how this brighter highlight looks.
It is perhaps a little yellow.
It's a very strong green, that highlight, and it'll take a little bit of toing and froing
to get that right, but in any case I'm going to get the bulk of that highlight down just
to see how it works.
I'm close enough where I don't have to worry about having to change substantially what
I'm doing here.
I'll just introduce a little bit of variety of color closer to some of the other colors
I see out there once I get this down.
That's somewhere near it.
Now I'm going to just go to a stronger color.
When I say a stronger color, once again I mean a purer color, less of the three primies,
so like perhaps two of them.
I'm looking at the greens at the moment, so let's see what that gives us.
Now this is often the case.
I look out there and see some of the stronger greens, so I add a little green.
As soon as I've added a little green, it's caused my eye to change somewhat so that when
I look out there now I see some of the reds.
In fact, around the tips there's quite a lot of nice permanent crimson-yellow mix.
The definition between the highlight and the shadow is still a little abrupt.
It is abrupt out there, but I'd like to get a little more modeling.
I'm going to take a little of my highlight and a little of that shadow tone, just picked
up a bit of them on the same brush and work those back into each other just a little bit.
It doesn't take a lot to mix those together.
If you overdo it, it becomes muddy and dead.
I think that I've just about got enough there.
I'm now going to paint the small shrub in front of the main tree in the foreground.
As you saw when I painted the shadow tone in, the shadow was lighter than the tree and
similarly the highlight is going to be lighter than the highlight of the main tree.
So we'll mix that color now.
Now I'll use the original highlight for the main tree.
I'll lighten it slightly with some white and once again, similarly to the shadow tone,
the highlight is a milkier sort of a color.
I won't add more color or a different color.
I'll just keep it a bit lighter and try that, see how that looks.
That is about the right color and tone.
I think it does look a little strong and jumping out of the picture a bit there, but that's
because it's fairly isolated against darks all around it and also it's very hard edged.
When it's softened in, as that bush is a very soft bush, when I do soften that in, I think
it'll settle back nicely and become part of that overall mass.
Once again, looking at the main shapes, nice little bit standing up on its own there.
Now the sunlight is getting down through that bush and that's what's making it a lot softer
as the foliage of this more solid tree behind is fairly cleanly delineated between highlight
and shadow because it's a very dense foliage.
This one being a thinner, wispier foliage, it's allowing the light to get through a little
more and therefore being a little softer, not quite so defined between the highlight
and shadow.
Now I've basically got down the overall shapes.
There's another little piece that looks nice against that.
I've basically got that down where I want it.
Now I'll start developing the shape and edges, just keeping a little bit of paint on the
brush and breaking out into these shadow tones.
The light seems to be creating shafts coming down through the bush.
I won't get too carried away with that but I'll just keep that in mind.
Now I'll just mix a little of those back hills.
Like that, that's somewhere near it.
I'll use that to open up the tree a little bit, get those shapes working.
There's some nice things.
You can see a couple of branches through the windows there.
Now you've got to be so careful not to overdo this.
You can start opening up areas and before you know it you've lost everything.
I can see some branches up in the windows so I'll work both sides of those branches
up a little.
Just a couple of notes there and it leaves the impression of branches in those windows.
I'm looking at the roundness, the overall roundness and fullness of the tree.
I'll just soften a little bit of blue into the foliage.
It doesn't always have to be against the darks although it's against the darks that you do
see most of the windows.
A couple of notes there to help create this roundness.
Once again being careful not to overdo it.
I could put another bit in there and I'd only require one small amount in there and that
would take the whole of that dark area out so I won't touch that any further.
Now I've just tried this highlight color.
What I'm making that up with is the original highlight tone I used in this foreground tree
but I'm just taking a little bit of the strength out of it.
I'm going to introduce a little bit of the shadow color to that original highlight and
try that.
I think that's about right.
I've added a tiniest little bit of permanent crimson also because it is a fairly warm color
out there.
I'll just strike that on a few points that the sunlight would be catching.
This hill continues up and there's more trees higher up casting shadows.
So I won't worry too much about that.
I'll keep a bit more sunlight on that side.
The trees on the right hand side are a little further away than the foreground trees I've
just painted highlights on.
So I don't want to be quite so pure in highlight color with those.
I'm going with white and a little Winsor yellow.
I'm going to use a little Viridian.
I was a bit heavy handed with the white I put on there.
So that's got it fairly green.
Those trees up there, those gums are a lot warmer than the water I've just painted.
So I'm going to put a little permanent crimson in.
That's neutralizing it and warming it up as those trees are.
Just try that on there.
That's probably going to be all right.
It is a little bit pure but I'll soften that a little bit more into the shadow tones.
That's looking okay.
I'll just soften that in a little bit.
Whoops, take a bit of paint off the brush.
What I like more is a bit of foliage and full sunlight in behind those trees.
I'll just pick up a little bit of the shadow tone and bring that across in front, a nice
branch running up there in front of that.
That's perhaps a little dark and some broken bits of shadow tone in front of that highlight.
The foreground is fairly simple.
The hill is running down, it's running towards, it's running down.
There's a bit of bracken just creating some shapes in there.
I can develop those up a little if I want to.
I'm going to keep the foreground fairly simple.
I'm now going to ascertain the tone and colour of the highlight where it strikes the shadow
of the tree line.
So I'll just have a go at mixing something there and see what I can discover.
It's a lovely colour out there.
There's a lot of red in it, a lot of cool red.
I'm using Permanent Crimson.
I'll put a little Yellow Ochre.
These dry late winter grasses are looking beautiful at the moment.
It's got a movey sort of tinge about it but I'm not going to include any blue into this
at this stage.
I want to keep it fairly warm.
This morning sun is warmish.
I'm basically laying paint down to give myself some pointers just to give myself an indication
as to where to leave areas.
There's going to be the shadow in here, there's a few logs, there's bits of shrubbery, etc.
So I've more or less sussed out what it is I want to do.
Now coming down I'll keep this same colour and tone coming down here a little lower and
I'll just run the bracken up into the picture here, maybe cut it back a little bit.
There are some shapes out there but I'm going to develop the shapes that suit me, not follow
what's happening by rate.
Now I'll start getting the softness and edges working now.
I'm pulling some of that paint back up into the shadow areas.
I don't even know what that's going to be, just leaving a few dark notes there.
As I start to develop it up I'll be able to cut more and more of those out until I'm left
with the amount of darks that I want.
There's some nice colours up in there also that vary from this highlight tone that I'm
putting down so I'll work those up into that in a moment.
Some nice little things happening, bits of foliage picking up highlight that stick up
into the shadow area.
Soften that edge a little bit, I do want to keep a clean division between highlight and
shadow but it is a slightly broken line, that'll do that.
Just softening a little more here.
A little bit of light breaking down through here, that'll help take this strong dark line
out of it.
I'll just break a little bit of light coming down and soften that a little.
Now some of those variations in colour I'll see if I can find now.
Lovely mauves in the grasses down there, I don't want to get too mauve but there's some
beautiful dry grasses going into some mauve colours down here.
Some nice warm coloured brackens in there.
The darks under the bracken are running around there, I'll leave some of those darks breaking
through.
A little stand of bracken running up into the native grasses there.
A little more colour, that's not too bad.
I don't want to lose all those lovely mauves that are happening in that flat grass.
Now with what I have on the canvas now I'm going to start developing that up.
Now some of those little shrubs up on the hill I'm just picking up a bit more of the
stronger colour, more of the bracken colour that I mixed and laying it over some of those
darks that I've left, just a little indication of some of the shrubbery happening up there
on the hill.
Soften the bottom of some of those bracken colours.
Ok a bit more bracken covering here.
I'm going to mix a little more blue with permanent crimson, a little cad scarlet is getting greyish
there now.
Cad scarlet having more yellow in it is going to make that a little greyer.
Just a bit of white, just try that, that's probably a bit cool and a bit light.
I'll add a little more cad scarlet, a little more permanent crimson.
That's going to be close enough for me, I might even lighten it a fraction as we go.
Just lay a bit more paint in there now.
I'm going to soften this shadow.
I want to be careful not to pick up too much of the highlight and pull into that shadow
tone.
It is a fairly broken shadow, I'm going to cut a little bit of highlight into it but
I don't want to overplay that.
Just get the big shape down first.
Now that is fairly solid looking at the moment.
What I'm going to do is take a little more blue and a little permanent crimson and make
a slightly darker tone and just put that somewhere in it.
By having a slightly darker tone it's going to give more air to the shadow itself, make
it look a little bit more like a shadow rather than a solid object lying on the ground.
I'm just going to mix a little highlight colour for the log back up there on the hill.
I'm going to use a bit of this grass colour, lighten a little bit, one or two tones with
a bit of white.
Now I'm just going to lay this highlight in over the top of the log, just a few quick
notes, a few little flicks of light against dark, bring a few of these roots up here picking
up the highlight.
Some of the little twigs and sticks poking up against the darks there catching the light,
they're really contrast and it's, mix a little more of that highlight tone, just pick up
a few bits of logs and sticks and twigs in the grasses, nothing too specific, just giving
an indication of the general rubble around on the ground.
Just picking up a few little highlights in front of the shadows, they're the things that
your eye catches on without having to analyse what it is that you're looking at, they're
just odds and ends laying around on the ground.
The dead tree that I did wash in originally and had subsequently painted out, I wasn't
particularly happy with the positioning of it, now I've got the rest of the painting
going, I'm thinking that I'm going to lean it out a little, keep it in tight with the
main focal point, this tree here, lean it out slightly and maybe bring a couple of branches
back in, I want to lean it that way, I think it'll fit comfortably with the compositional
lines in the painting so far.
I'm going to mix a little red and a little blue, I want to keep the tone of this tree
trunk just a tone lighter than the foliage of the tree behind it.
I'll just bring this trunk down at a slight angle and lose it in behind the bush in front.
Marc
I'll just add a little bit of blue to that previously mixed highlight that I used on
the log up on the back hill.
I'll just bring this highlight down, it'll contrast nicely against the darks of the tree
behind, rolling the brush slightly as I go to keep the fresh highlight paint rolling
off the brush.
If I bring the highlight too far down it'll start to make too much out of that dead tree
and I don't want that to dominate the painting.
Now if there's any advice I can really give you, it's not all those little things I fiddle
around with on the canvas today.
The real important thing is when you go out to paint enjoy yourself.
Be positive, don't get negative about what you're doing.
Don't start thinking I can't paint this, I can't paint that.
When you go in to paint a picture think about the things that you can paint.
Look at the areas that excite you, the things that interest you.
Get stuck into those, let the other things take care of themselves.
Most importantly of all you've got to really feel enthusiastic for what you're doing.
It's no good finding a subject that's going to be something that you may know how to paint
but you don't feel excited about painting.
You've really got to find a subject that excites you.
It doesn't have to be a majestic mountain range, it can be some little thing, a little
flower growing out the corner of an old bit of broken concrete or something.
If it's something that you see and like, it really grabs you emotionally, get stuck into
it, have a go at it.
Now when you go out painting don't let other things, other outside influences affect you.
Don't go out there feeling good about something and having a friend say to you, oh I don't
like that, I don't think I can paint it.
If they can't paint it that's fine, they'll find something they can paint.
You paint what you want to paint and don't let anybody dissuade you from it.
That's about the best advice I think I could give you.
So when you go out painting, just get stuck into it, have a good go at it, enjoy yourself.
I hope you enjoyed this video.
If you did, please like and subscribe.
Thank you for watching.
I'll see you in the next video.
Bye bye.
.