Herd of cattle in the New Forest countryside - WIP stages

Four stages of the creation of the New Forest scene.

Painted in late December and through to early January 2021 this painting shows a countryside scene within the New Forest, situated on the south coast of the UK. It is painted in oils on mounting board, sized at 20” x 16”.

The first panel shows the drawing of the countryside scene, done in brown acrylic paint on a lighter brown acrylic wash. The second panel shows where white acrylic paint has been added to indicate areas of a lighter tone, namely the sky area.

Moving on to the third panel shows where oil paint has now been introduced in to the process of creating the artwork. Here paint has been added to indicate the basic colours of forms within and acts as an underpainting, which will be painted over again. This layer of paint is thinly applied, using a medium (similar to white spirit, but more refined) to thin it out. The last panel displays the completed painting. Here the paint is thicker, basically as it comes out of the tube and is applied more carefully. Detail and colour are of the prime concern at this stage. Once the paint was dry (after a week or so) a level of glazing was added. This is when a wash of almost transparent colour, held in a thick, clear oil is applied to help emphasise the colours and make slight alterations to tonal values, such as making the trees darker than originally painted.

The finished forest scene can be seen on this link in greater detail.