I created a video about painting trees, sky holes and edges while doing a demo on a painting of a citrus grove below.

Edges are either soft, hard or lost in a painting.  We can use hard edges to draw the eye toward our center of interest or as part of the composition by using brushwork that shows the line between two values, light and dark in a painting.  This will draw the eye to that area.  Using softer edges with less contrast between values if we don't want to draw the eye there but it can be used to move the eye from one spot to another.  Lost edges are between two similar values and brushwork can be used  to wipe one similar value into another.   Edges all work together toward the composition success.

Sky holes have mostly soft edges and some hard edges inside the tree and make the tree look real.  If you look at a tree, you will see the sky peeking through mostly the top branches, but also the bottom larger trunks.  They can help separate the branches.  Sky holes should be slightly darker than the sky and I smudge the edges slightly to give a softer edge as you don't want them to stand out too much.

More about what I am up to:

I participated  in our local art show (FAFO) and had a good show.  I left a few hours early to take a Lori Putnam workshop in Tennessee and had a fabulous time!  It was a great group of artists and I learned a lot.  Lori was very entertaining and seemed like a nice person to boot.  We painted in Tennessee during fall color and it was my first time for me to do that.  I was in heaven!!  I am doing a five day intensive there next year.

It is the beginning of the year and I have put out some goals for my art career.  I have traded out art lessons for social media marketing and it is weird seeing someone else post stuff about me.  I have a hard time looking at it and have decided I won't look at it as it feels so self-focused.  I'm not too used to that.  Any way, I will try it for 6 months and see how it goes.

Myself and several sweet ladies are opening an art gallery called 'Studio B'!  We are  going to give it a few months and see if we want to continue.  So far I am having a blast!  But I need to keep painting!

Until next time,
Keep painting!
Laurie