Acrylic Landscape Painting

     To begin this project, I was given the three primary colors: blue, black, and yellow. Along with these acrylic paints, I was also given black and white in order to create tints and shades. Next, I found a few different pictures in a national geographic magazine. The purpose of this was to create an original painting with atmospheric perspective. By analyzing the photos, I chose a sky, background, middle ground, and fore ground. This became the basic composition of my painting which organized into a piece of art that exhibits proper atmospheric perspective.

      After choosing and organizing a composition, I began by painting a bluish sky tinted with white and bluish clouds. Since the light source was located at the upper left, the sky is much darker at the right. This was achieved by creating a shade of blue and black. Since this was a monochromatic painting, the entire piece consisted of blue tints and shaded along with white. The background of greenish water and white icebergs contrast strongly with the middle and foregrounds. The trees, also painted in blue, were painted by dabbing the brush with strong pressure vertically. The value of these trees can be witnessed through the cast shadows facing towards the right. These shadows have a darker grayish white at the base and lighter tint at the bottom. As for the icebergs and skies, a horizontal brush stroke was most effective. In order to paint the man, dogs, and sled, a much finer tipped brush was utilized. The rest of the painting, the foregrounded, was painted with a white shadow, creating a grayish color. The most impressive feature of the middle and foregrounds is the splattered snow throughout. In order to do this, a toothbrush was dipped in white paint several times and the bristles stroked to splatter tiny dots of white paint. Through these long steps, I created an atmospheric perspective painting set in an arctic environment.