Learning objectives
The mass of visual information confronting the landscape artist can be truly daunting, and many times we wonder where on earth we should make a start amidst all that overwhelming detail. You could perhaps begin by choosing a gentle waveless seascape with a solitary seagull, but you’d quickly feel the need for something more interesting. At this point you don’t need to include everything you see, and indeed it is rather self-defeating to attempt to do so. We need to aim at recording a flavour of the scene instead. My over-riding aim in landscape painting is to portray the local character and mood of a place, with a strong focal point and most of the rest suggested, rather than outlined in great depth.
Easy way to simplify
In many cases simplifyingleave out a prominent feature that might appear tasteless, in some iconic landscape. It is your painting however and whatever others may think, you can create it in any way you find most appealing. Shadows, mist, clouds, haze, squalls can be introduced to eliminate elaborate passages as in (over the page) and for distant features, vague suggested shapes can work well, as can a simple, plain wash.
