Trees and lake | Color study

Another color study done on canvas. This time, I'm paying more attention to how I mix colors, where to apply them, and the techniques as well.

I recently found this artist called Sainer and his colors are incredibly impressive. This is the color combos that I really dig, but I can't make them look 'right' yet. I observed how the colors were placed and tried to do the same with mine.

For the reference photo, I used this image of mine that I took in Queen Sirikit park, Bangkok. For the colors, I used this art of Sainer as a reference.

I used orange as an underpainting cos they seem cool to look at if it shows through from the final painting lol. Though I like to make thick layers, I kinda know this wouldn't show but nice to start this way anyway. :D

I added some warm greens. I kinda like how it looks like this way though. XD I should use orange more often!

I added some Pthalo blues for the trees and decided that the ground in the foreground will be blue as well so the middle ground would be the only green one.

Back in art school, I paid more attention to how the composition would be done to focus on the subjects and what symbols would be used but I didn't really pay much attention to colors. Well also if you don't practice much then you won't learn much! XD

I paid close attention to how much lighter or darker the colors would be. A lot of times I would look at them in a tunnel vision that I forget to look at the whole image itself so they end up flat. Having everything too saturated or too light (or too dark) will end the painting up being flat which what I was avoiding.

I kinda forgot how to mix colors now haha so I always have to remember that adding white to lighten the colors will desaturate them. So even in mixing, you'd have to pay attention as well.

I added some nice pinks on the leaves and they ended up looking good. :D Although I would say the colors have uncomfortably equal amounts of each other and probably would have been better (or preferred) to have one main color. But that is why we do color studies anyway!

I also just noticed that my acrylics, albeit professional grade, does darken a bit when it gets dry. Of course I only noticed that cos I wasn't paying attention before. Haha. But all acrylics apparently do that and I will need to get used to that coming from an oil painter myself.

Overall, I still don't know how to feel with acrylic paint to be honest. I kinda miss working with oils though I'm not gonna do that now since I'm sensitive to the smell and would need a dedicated studio for that... but what I really like about acrylics is that I don't have to wait for the paint to dry if I make a mistake and can just correct it immediately. :P