Below are the paintings I finished for my Painting I class.
This was my first full painting with acrylic paint. I like doing landscapes and things like that, so I went for something Bob Ross-esque and quickly found that I could really only do mountains.
Next, I wanted to do just mountains, and I switched to digital painting where I had a lot more success. I found some great brushes and learned some simple and effective techniques, and I was able to make these snow covered, clouded mountaintops.
Next, I wanted to do a more fleshed out landscape and add some lighting to it, so I made this. I wanted to have a foreground and background, so there is the large, clouded mountains in the back and the softer hills in the foreground, with the river linking the two. I also played with t eh light and used a special brush to give the sun that horizontal flare look. The landscape shape was inspired from an online tutorial.
After that, I started looking at doing a forest so I looked up some pictures of forest edges and I made this. I again tried to have a convincing foreground and far background which I think came out pretty well. The problem was the middle area, being too far to do much detail but too close to really add something to it. I tried to vary the grass color in the middle to give it some interest, but the whole painting turned out looking pretty green. I like it though. I also had fun with the clouds and making them very dark because you usually think of clouds as white or grey. I used a special rain brush to make it look like a storm was rolling in over the forest, and I really like how the mist looks in the trees in the center-top of this piece.
This was inspired from when I was actually playing a video game (Skyrim), I saw something similar to this so I snapped a screenshot and tried to do something similar. This is my least favorite of all the digital painting pieces, but I still do really like the water. I made the brushes for the trees myself, and I also like the grass in the foreground. I tried to make a stone bridge but I don't think it came out looking good. I also think I went a little too hard on the light rays, making the grass look too light, and I am not a fan of the sky - I grabbed a picture of a sunset sky and put it in, then erased bits and painted over it - but I think that was the wrong choice because it seems too real in a painting that is less realistic looking. I do really love the river look though.
This is the final painting I did and is undeniably my favorite. I tried to recreate Albert Bierstadt's "Among the Sierra Nevada Mountains" painting with a more concept-art, less realistic vibe and I love how it turned out. I think the foreground especially on the right side is a little weak, but I think I nailed the water and using some photoshop tricks, I was able to make the reflections of the mountains look great. I think I also nailed the sky, I think the mountains look great (if a little too high contrast on the left) and I think the foliage on the right is done well but not overdone. This is definitely my favorite of them all and was a lot of fun to do.
