John Bradley Masterclass
Painting the Blue Mountains
Join John Bradley in his studio for an over the shoulder Art Masterclass as he completes a Blue Mountains painting “Afternoon Light Black Heath”.
In this Masterclass John shares all his tips, techniques and secrets on how he creates this escarpment panting.
Painting the Blue Mountains
In the Painting the Blue Mountains Masterclass John will demonstrate and explain the skills and techniques he uses, you will:
- Learn simple but effective techniques for painting the perspective in mountains, sandstone rocks and cliffs, gum tree trunks, branches, and leaves, dense tree covered slopes, bush rocks, sand and other blue mountains features
- Learn how to use complementary opposite colours to enhance highlights
- Learn how to soften and control the intensity of colour to portray distance and create realistic mountain ranges
- Increase your understanding on how the sun’s light impacts sandstone cliffs in direct light and in shadow
- Increase your skills in painting in general
- Learn how to combine knife and brush work for added emphasis in the foreground.
- Increase your understanding of composition and perspective
- Learn how finish off a painting with highlights on cliffs and leaves and bring your painting to life.
SUITABLE FOR OIL & ACRYLIC PAINTS: This painting has been painted using oil paints however the majority of the effects demonstrated can be achieved with acrylic paint using a good flow medium.
John’s attention to detail will continue to inspire all levels of artist from beginner to more advanced for many years to come in your own studio.
This Blu Gums Masterclass consists of one hour and 15 minutes of painting and commentary by the artist, with helpful advice on painting key elements in a landscape.
Below is a fast forward snippet from the Masterclass with the commentary removed. Enjoy!
How to paint sandstone cliffs
How to gum tree trunks, branches & leaves
How to paint perspective mountain ranges
How to paint foreground grasses, rocks & other details
Painting Skills You Will You Learn
- John will show how what brushes, knives and other tools he uses to create different effects in different areas of the painting
- You will see the painting process broken down into easy to follow chunks. Some sections are run in fast forward so you can follow them easily and then rewind and play in slow speed if you need to see even more detail
- Every aspect of the scene is covered from the perspective of a blue mountains escarpment colour palette.
- You will see brushwork up close to see how John creates specific details such as sandstone rock cliffs, large gum trees bark and leaves, foreground grasses and small plants, gum tree covered mountain slopes, perspective mountain slopes and much more.
- Watch as John builds up the painting from the background to the final touches
- Finally John will explain how he brings his completed landscape to life by adding highlights to the sandstone cliffs and the gumtree leaves and branches.