Why do My Clouds Look like Cotton Wool? Plus 25 Solutions to Other Landscape Painting Peeves: Tips and Techniques on Oil Painting Landscapes for Beginners

Learning to paint in oils is an enjoyable and creative process, but from time to time the fledgling artist may hit a creative brick wall, often with a particular issue. This might be with the plague of muddy colours, garish flower heads, trees that resemble lollypops, skies that look bland, darkening the colour of snow or shadows that look like black splodges. Such matters, if persistent may cause the artist concerned to throw in the brushes, but this need not be the end.

With no-nonsense and straightforward advice, this book breaks down common issues with landscape painting into 26 chapters, outlining the problem, suggested solutions in the form of painting exercises and resources.

Preliminary chapters on matters of oil painting in general ensure the artist has all the essential equipment needed to begin oil painting. Practical matters such as demystifying oil painting process, the essential oil pigments and definitions of terms and techniques associated with oil painting serves to make the whole process more approachable. Alla prima, glazing, impasto and scumbling are all explained as well as the colour theory.

A step by step demonstration on how to paint Castlerigg Stone Circle in Cumbria is provided at the back of the book.

Briefly I have taught oil painting and life drawing at my local college. I obtained my Bachelor of Arts degree from Kingston University in Surrey and my PCET Teaching qualification from Warwick University. I have written and illustrated children’s books and a teaching guide for art.