How to Paint a Landscape:
Landscape Painting Tip No 1: Don't Put Everything In
You're not obliged to include everything that you see in the landscape you're painting simply because it is there in real life. (In fact, I’d go as far as to say that if you do this, then you might as well take a photo and have it printed on canvas.) Be selective, include the strong elements that characterise that particular landscape. Use the landscape as a reference, to provide you with the information you need to paint the elements, but don't slavishly follow it.
Landscape Painting Tip No 2: Use Your Imagination
If it makes for a stronger painting composition, don't hesitate to rearrange the elements in the landscape. Or take things from different landscapes and put them together in one painting. (Obviously this doesn't apply if you're painting a famous, readily identifiable scene, but the majority of landscape paintings are not of postcard scenes, but rather to capture the essence of a landscape.)
Landscape Painting Tip No 3: Give the Foreground Preference
Don't paint the whole landscape to the same degree of detail: paint less detail in the background of the landscape than you do in the foreground. It's less important there and gives more 'authority' to what's in the foreground. The difference in detail also helps draw the viewer's eye into the main focus of the landscape painting.
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