They don't last long

It's such a shame that fall colours do not last very long. This is the first year that I'm not around for the beautiful transition of colours. 

I barely got to see the fall colours this year.  We just got to enjoy the tail end of the season when we returned from holidays. Even if some people claim that the colours appeared to be muted compared to previous years, I still missed the show ;-(

That's why I had to paint some fall colours.  I searched my older photos and thought I'd try something a bit different.  Painting fall colours comes down to paying attention to basics- in this case, value, chroma and temperature.  Here are a few definitions:

• Value refers to the lightness or darkness of a colour.
• Chroma refers to how intense or dull a color appears.
• Temperature refers to the degree of warmth or coolness measured when one color stands in relationship to another color.

Painting a fall landscape will have a higher use of warm colours (most yellow, red and orange). These are not colours that I often use in paintings.  However, they are fun to mix. I have a number of yellows and a number of reds and by making different combinations I can have an unlimited choice of colours.

Although these two paintings are not completed, you'll note the use of warm (leaves) and cool colours (background).  I'm still working on values and a number of details. 

Stay tuned for next week, as I hope to have these two paintings completed.

Have a great week
Danielle