Oil Painting Techniques for Cemeteries

• An old cemetery and church in Norway illustrates a traditional pastoral cemetery scene.Brand X Pictures/Brand X Pictures/Getty Images
  
  A church cemetery is a traditional subject for classic oil painting techniques. Cemeteries were a popular subject for pastoral landscape painting in the 17th through 19th centuries. Obtain best results in oil painting a cemetery by incorporating traditional oil painting techniques of underpainting in supporting tones. Use cool underpainting colors like ultramarine blue or Payne's gray before painting basic tonal areas and sections. Follow the traditional oil painting technique of painting fat to lean. Use linseed oil glazes for soft effects. Establish strong tonal relationships before completing details.
  
  

Acrylic Painting Techniques for Cemeteries

• Decorative gravestones on the prairie provide texture and contrast for acrylic painting.Thinkstock/Comstock/Getty Images
  
  Acrylic paints are favorites with artists because of their quick drying time and suitability for thick impasto textures. Acrylics are a good choice for cemetery paintings with contrasting images and shapes without a lot of fog or haze. It is difficult to duplicate a large area incorporating a soft or hazy effect with quick-drying acrylic paints. Establish tonal relationships and basic composition areas before completing details. Use impasto techniques and texture to depict gravestone flowers or grass and foliage.
  
  

Watercolor Techniques for Cemeteries

• A cemetery with fog and high contrast tombstones can inspire a striking watercolor painting.Hemera Technologies/AbleStock.com/Getty Images
  
  Watercolors may be the painting technique best-suited for cemeteries. To produce an effective fog, use a wet-into-wet technique with a large soft brush. A tiny amount of salt can produce surprisingly realistic stone textures. Paint soft background and fog areas. Continue to complete detailed stone effects using a dry-brush technique. Trees in silhouette form can be created with a few delicate brush strokes, down to the smallest branches.
  
  

Selecting a Cemetery Scene

• The type of cemetery scene you select will depend on your personal taste and purposes for the image. Keep in mind the different properties of media you will use. Watercolors are best suited for images with soft and hazy areas, which are ideal for wet-into-wet techniques. Oil paintings produce traditional landscape scenes. Oil paint can flexibly adapt to soft, foggy areas. Acrylic paints will be the best choice for images with high contrast, or images requiring brush texture using impasto techniques.