While designing a successful landscape composition seems complex, I have identified principles that simplify the task.
Within the foreground, the middle ground and the background of a thumbnail sketch, I determine the relative sizes of three large shape masses and which one will be most prominent: the sky, horizontal planes (usually in the foreground, e.g., grasses) and vertical planes (trees, mountains, cliffs).
Next, I determine predominate values for each of these masses. While painting, I consider three value ranges: mid-light for the sky; mid-value, the range for rich color, such as for a field or a mountain far in the distance; and mid-dark, for trees, cliffs, hills and possibly a closer mountain. With these three value ranges, shapes maintain color and viewers can distinguish planes. Only accents would appear close…