Notes on Richard Schmid's Painting DVDs ( all 4 landscape painting)

Richard Schmid is one of my all-time favorite painter. I watched all 4 DVDs he made on Landscape painting.

He is extremely good and shared an incredible wealth of information on Alla Prima.
By the way, he wrote 'Alla Prima' and this is by far the best painting book I ever read.

If there's one book I have to recommend ? This is it.
It far exceeded everything I ever known about painting.



Notes on Alla Prima painting:

1. Richard prepares his own canvas and is demanding/meticulous in all his tools. He only uses lead primed canvas. 
2. Took extreme care with his brushes and has a thorough understanding on his medium and pigment. He uses Langnickels and bristle.
3. Uses the base wash as an opportunity for entire painting.
4. Uses a white mixed from Titanium and Zinc White. Titanium for its body and zine for its brushability
5. Medium =  Mixture of 5 Parts Turpentines, 1 Part Stand oil and 1 part Darmish Varnish
6. Mother nature is a wildcard and it will throw anything at you. You must stay committed to painting, no matter what when you are outdoor.
7. Paint the fast changing thing first
8. Structure and prioritize your edges, values, color and focus.  How do you decide on edges ?
1.  how appropriate the edge to the thing you are painting.  
2. hard edge is a device for the focal point . Like a shout or scream.
9. Painting = Capture what is there.
10. He does not use a color system. Rather, he believes that light harmonizes everything and staying true to what you see is all that matters. 
11.  There are only two errors in painting
1. Not painting something that’s there that need to be there
2. Painting something that isn’t there
12. How to mix the right color ? Plot out every single colors your can mix with your palette and have the chart with you if you need to.
13. His palette : Ultramarine Blue, Colbalt blue, Viridian, Transparent Oxide Red, Terra Rosa, Yellow Ochre, Cad Yellow Lemon, Cad Yellow Light, Cad Yellow Medium, Cad Yellow Deep, Cad Red, Alz Crimson,  White (predominately warm palette)
14. Color Temperature is far more important than the right colors
15. Uses every technique to get the edges, value and effect. This can be scrapping off, wiping out, using fingers.

Richard is extremely good with the structure of his washes.

He explains how 1) one can structure the base wash with the soil color. 2) Mix the colors that made up the ground likes the leaves, the rocks. 3) Insert the colors back and form the entire picture.

Laying down the wash wiping out the excess so that it evaporates faster.

He uses a cane in place of a Maulstick.  Maulstick make no sense against a wet surface

His pigment and arrangement 

Tip on preserving his brushes. He clip his bristle with a cardboard to preserve its shape. Another alternative is to use aluminum foil.  He explained that it is extremely important to have the brush do exactly what you want it to do

He doesn't fill every spot of the painting. Instead, he took opportunity with the ground and prepare thin washes that will facilitate with the final illusion to a complete painting. Painting is an illusion, he reminded

painting is simply a matter of getting the right colors in the right place. If you know all the color mixture to your palette, You can resolve the rest of the issue.

Showing the tricks to how various masters handle soft edges. 1) with modulation like the impressionist 2) by swiping with clean brush to spread the mix  (Sargent method) 3) by dabbling and twisting with a clean brush.

The palette knife is key to great sharp edges.

An exceptional painter

In one of the DVD, Richard explains that the Digital display is perhaps the next best thing for reference. Printed photos collapse and clipped most of the chroma and values.

An example of his brushworks

another example of Richard's amazing brushwork.