Notice. Wonder. Make. Love Your Own Marks: Creating Landscapes with Mandy Stobo

Mandy Stobo is a passionate artist, actor, and mother. She is dedicated to her community, her family and her artwork while always taking in as many new perspectives, experiences and memories that life can offer. In this activity she inspires young and burgeoning artists to explore creating their own landscape.

This series of fun educational activities and projects aim to help you cultivate curiosity and creativity in your children using arts-based learning, inspired by the same learning techniques and activities used in the award-winning ConocoPhillips Hub for Inspired Learning program. Each activity is designed to be simple, for you to do in your own home and immediate neighbourhood.

Supplies

• Canvas

• Paint

• Variety of brushes

• Water

• Paper towel

Creative Bravery is a must! Don’t be afraid to pick non-traditional colours for your landscape or feel constrained by what you feel it should look like. Let your creativity loose and let’s get painting!

STEP 1: Find your horizon line. Where does the sky meet the ground? You can sketch this in with pencil, or just get painting with the next step!

A computer with a person's hand on the screen

STEP 2: Once the horizon line is determined, pick your sky colours. Start with the lightest colour at your horizon line and move up using darker colours. This will give the illusion of space and expansion.

Blue paint on paper in front of a computer screen.

STEP 3: Pick your ground colours. Mandy loves using complimentary colours! Start with your lightest colour at the horizon and move downwards to the darkest colour.

Blue, yellow and orange paint on paper in front of a computer screen.

STEP 4: Is there anything on your horizon line? Mountains? Buildings? Trees? Paint these in.

Blue sky with dark grey mountains and yellow, orange foreground.

STEP 5: Thinking about light, where is the sun or the moon? Paint your sun/moon where you want it.

STEP 6: Perspective!

On the ground, items closer to the bottom will be bigger and as they move towards the horizon line, they become smaller.

In the sky, clouds start smaller to the horizon line and become bigger as they move upwards.

STEP 7: Shadow!

Looking at where your light source is, your shadow should fall in that direction.

Highlights!

Now add some highlights. Where does the light hit? Notice on Mandy’s mountains she used a bit of white paint to make it look lighter.

Thanks Mandy for guiding us through your process!