North Of Banff - Reference Photo & Introduction

Welcome to North of Banff. This tutorial is based on a scene along the Icefields Parkway in the Canadian Rockies, on the road north toward Jasper. What attracted me to the scene were the magnificent sunlit mountains and the clouds moving across their tops, contrasted against the much darker trees in the foreground. The reference photograph also presented an interesting compositional problem: there were so many foreground trees that they tended to block the view. Rather than simply copy the photograph, I rearranged some of those shapes and created an opening that leads the eye through the darker foreground and toward the light on the mountains beyond. As we work through the painting, I’ll show you how a reference photograph can be a starting point, and how changes in composition, value, and light can help create a stronger painting. If you’d like to paint along with me, you can download the reference photograph below and keep it open on your screen or print a copy to use while you paint.