Tropical Island 2

Artist's Gallery

Adding Trees, Sand Bar, Reflections, and Waves

I love how the waves came out on the right-hand side of this painting. There’s actually a touch of brown mixed into the blue, which gives the realism of shallow waves washing over the sand bar. Those tiny flowers couldn’t have been easier—I used a scrubby brush, double-loaded it with white and pink (or yellow), and dabbled it around the greenery. (See another use of the scrubby brush here.)

Really, I could go on and on about this painting, but let me just talk about the trees yet. The book had a really cool method for palm trees. You take a fan brush and load it with dark green, then just touch it in white or yellow (this is double-loading). Starting at the center of the tree top, you draw out the brush in an arc down into the palm fronds. A few sideways strokes make some good dead leaves too. The shorter palms were done with a flat brush, but using a similar method. This tropical scene was a lot easier than it looks, thanks to the easy methods in Fast and Fun Landscaping!