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I have no words to describe what I just saw. Magic is definitely real

Right on the money.

9:30 cupola

Thank you for sharing! I appreciated learning from you😊

Thank you for your great tutorial. I really love the other artists paintings that you include and critique. Cheers from the Blue Mountains Australia!

I am learning so much about composition and taking a photo and making it better in a painting. Granted, it takes me 7 to 10 redos before I get the painting to look nice but I am learning about what works and what doesn't work, mostly by doing what doesn't work.

thank you I've been struggling creating shades or color from a shadow

As usual, I love this, your techniques for simplifying have been extremely helpful to me!

Thanks so much Phil!

It's amazing just how much one has to learn. Thank you 😊

Thanks!

Really enjoy and benefit from your videos on simplification. Thanks a lot Phil.

Good one again Phil. Fortunately, I have taken lots of photos of paintings of mine for a long time and I'm currently going back to redo and simplify those that were too detailed and had other "problems". A xerox of the photo, from my computer files, makes a really lousy copy; so, I don't get too much detail anyway, and I apply your other methods you teach about the "basics". Kevin Macpherson, in his book, talks about using colored construction paper to do block ins, on a piece of cardboard, that done long before our fancy editing computers today with our photos. That certainly works too, or to take a few colored makers and do a sketch that is basically a "poster". Love the Maynard Dixon pieces, but, like you, I don't want to "go that far" in my work! ;D. And, of course, there's an art gallery, here in Tucson, that specializes in his work; you know of it, I'm sure. Later.

Super useful lesson thank you

This was so helpful in showing how and why to simplify, thank you!!

Which app are you using ?

A very helpful tutorial video. Many thanks for doing this.

I have liked Marion Wachtel's watercolor and oil paintings since I found her. I'm so glad to hear her recognized in your program.

I want to learn how to use the digital tools to simplify my photos - are you using photoshop, Phil? I love your tutorials. You are an amazing teacher - I also love your work. Thanks in advance!

I just found you, enjoyed this video and will check out all of your videos and website! I just ordered a small color wheel to bring with me outside, I’m glad you said that you don’t just see it in your head. I am just beginning the plein air journey (just over a year into painting at all) so this is extremely helpful, thank you!!

You are showing me the skills necessary to be a high class painter and not just a copy-er of photos using paints. I am busy trying to digest all of your great education and then implement them. It has made me a little fearful of trying because I know that I will fail until I finally succeed.

Phil, this video helped me tremendously! Especially the part about just making simple statements instead of trying to sneak up on it as well as looking to the adjacent dark or light area to judge the value instead of staring right at it. That mistake has cost me countless hours of frustration. Thanks!

I have watched a ton of your videos and tomorrow am going to take the plunge and do your technique from start to finish. I have already chosen my photo, cropped it down to the focal point, and sketched it onto my canvas board. Tomorrow I will work out my main value points and then get started.

This is fantastic. You took a kind of shabby scene and turned it into an exciting painting!

Excellent Demo.

Çok güzel ,öğretici bir video olmuş. Bu bilgileri bizimle paylaştığınız için minnettarım,TEŞEKKÜRLER.

Thank you for teaching us that there is so much behind-the-scenes work before you ever pick up a paint brush. This is where the real work begins.

You are a fantastic painter and instructor.

Thank you, this is a great video and I will paint my next sky with that technique.

I really like how you point out the subtle color differences. Then, I realize that I can see that, too.

Another good one Phil!! Reflected light is so often missing in a lot of paintings you see. And, of course, that is where outdoor painting study comes in; it's much more obvious there, compared to some photos, and a bit easier to incorporate into your paintings. I'm very conscious about it, down here in Tucson, when painting cactus, the bright tan/white sand of a wash will always bounce a lot of light into the shadow of the big main stem of the saguaros. Yes, Reflected Light; that one feature, added to your paintings, folks, may just elevate them from "totally sucking" to "mediocre", at least!! LOL ;D

I am learning so much. I knew that I was lacking many skills but did not know exactly what was holding me back. Thanks to you, I am learning that so much more thought goes into the "Before You Start Painting" phase of creating real art. In the back of my mind I knew that to be true but most painting videos just show someone painting. That's it. You show the process leading up to picking up a paint brush.

As always, very helpful!

Awesome demo!

Fantastic lesson, thank you very much !!

This is the best video beginning to end! Thank you so much for helping us learn how to incorporate figures into scenes.

I am learning so much from watching your videos. Thank you.

All of your videos are good but, for me, this was the best one yet that made everything click. Thank you

This has been extremely helpful information, your simplification methods with a simple value system is great, thank you!

very good, phil have you concerned to publish color exercise book and how to see colors in values

Can I use this technique with acrylic heavy golden open?

Best instructional series on the internet. Thank you, Phil!

Thank you very much for this video. it was very helpful. Painting gardens can be really challenging. But trying to picture them in terms of layers I think would really help. I loved what you did with it.

Thank you for showing how to add figures and animals to a painting. I just learned to how to add not-detailed cows but I would love to add horses and people with horses. Thank you so much.

where did you buy your camera?

Phil, you rock...!!!

Thumbs up!

Mauve was Vincent Van Gogh’s first art instructor, they were related.

Good one Phil. Lots of prep work, but worth it to not mess up the "big" painting too much. I don't do figures in the landscape, but you also show good methods for it. Reminds me of when I did mostly wildlife subjects (which are "figures"), to try to get them to look "natural" in a landscape setting without being "pasted on", that's a really terrible look. Used a method that my two favorite artists at the time (1980's-90s) Robert Bateman and John Seery Lester used, which was to paint a rough-ish sketch (in acrylic, my sole medium at that time) a bird or mammal on a small sheet of clear plastic and move it around, on the almost finished landscape, to get the best composition, then decide where to put it in, and blend into the surroundings, "organically". That's especially important for multiple animals, with different poses, like a group of wolves or lions for example. This was the/my "analog" approach then, before "fancy" computers, like today, and photo shop, but it worked well enough. Suppose the same thing could be done now for the human animal (aka just "big monkeys") LOL, if you need some figure near barns or something, like you showed. And, you can still do it with your chickens too!! LOL ;D

Fantastic from beginning to end. Thanks Phil