This is a landscape oil painting done with Holbein Duo Aqua water mixable oil paints. These paints are great! They work like oils but cleanup with water.
This painting was painted using a photograph my parents took from a trip they made this year to Vancouver BC.
The Technique
I used a vignette technique to help move the viewers eye towards the distant trees around the river bend. I really like using this technique.
It is simple to do.
1) Identify the path you want your viewer’s eye to take through your painting.
2) Make sure that there are areas on this path that have one or more of the following:
- Hard edges
- Bright Colors or values (Your eye is attracted to light)
- Detail
3) Then make sure that the other areas of the painting don’t have these items. In other words make the other areas have soft edges and/or duller darker/colors and less detail.
I softened the top left and bottom right corners of this painting and used less intense colors in the corners as well. I then pumped up the contrast and detail on the river and put some highlights on the small fall right at the river bend.
Have you used this technique before? Try it on your next painting and let me know how it goes.
