Autumn Trail
Unlocking ‘Autumn Trail’: The Tonalist Secret to Natural Greens
Hello fellow painters,
Have you ever mixed a green that just felt… wrong? A little too bright, a little too artificial—a green that sits on top of the canvas instead of receding naturally into the landscape? It’s one of the most common frustrations in landscape painting.
In the full session for this painting, “Autumn Trail,” we tackle this problem head-on. The solution, which is core to my Tonalist approach, is often counter-intuitive: you must add red to your greens.
Adding a touch of a complementary color, like Rose Madder or Burnt Sienna, into a green mixture neutralizes it just enough. It kills the artificial intensity and creates an incredibly natural, complex color that harmonizes beautifully with the rest of the scene. This one principle can transform your work.
But that’s just one piece of the puzzle we solve in this session. Capturing the warm, low light of autumn requires a whole series of intentional choices, starting well before the first brushstroke. In the full two-hour session, you get a front-row seat to the entire road map. You’ll see:
My proprietary “Mike’s Green,” mixed from yellow and black for a more natural feel.
The “blurry vision” technique I use (by taking my glasses off) to simplify the reference photo and nail the composition.
How I break compositional “traps” like straight diagonals to create more organic forms.
Reading about these ideas is one thing. To truly understand them, you need to see them in action. For my Studio Pass members, the full session and all the learning materials are now unlocked.
