I had made a dash for the Pond as I saw the sky had potential to be a wonderful sunset. But in my haste I forgot my Pochade (outside easel) very annoying but took my board, and sketch book and drew the scene several times to try and learn the subject and imprint it on my memory. I took photos to help with colour reference.
While I was painting it today I thought this would be a great one for my students to have a go at :-) As they haven't tackled a sunset sky and some water reflections to go with it! That will be in the April workshop.
I have learnt that if you paint dark areas to thickly and with opaque colours they tend to look heavy and dull, this is a translucent mix with no white. The little sailing club had very little light but I threw some onto it, to show it was there and give the land more interest.
The mirror reflections in the sky and water, was easier when I turned the board 90 degrees so I could mirror the patterns more easily. The sun felt a risk to put in as it was unsual but went for it and quite pleased with the end result!
This is lovely, Clare, it very much has the feel of the end of the day. What translucent colours did you use in your darks? I recently scraped back a dark area , twice, because I found exactly as you said about the heaviness of opaque paint and how it just looks wrong. Any advice on colours would be great.
ReplyDeleteHi Caroline, thanks for your comment and good question...I used Raw Umber and Ultramarine as the main colours of the darks. These two mixed if in right proportion create a subtle greeny colour. I added a smidge of Crimson to warm it in places and more blue to cool it. And at the tops the trees where light was hitting them I added a small amount of Michael Harding Warm White to the mixture.
DeleteI hope this helps with your 'darks' mixing :-) Clare
Thankyou Clare!
DeleteP.S. By the way congrats on 37,000+ views!!
ReplyDeleteThank you, it is amazing!
DeleteYou are good at painting skies. The colours are exactly right and the addition of the sun is perfect. Although one cannot see clearly the sailing club, its enough.
ReplyDeleteThank you ebbybow :-)
DeleteLove this, quite a dramatic scene and despite lack of pochade at the time you have conveyed the immediacy of the sunset very succesfully. Would love to have a go at this, I think sunrise would be too much for me to prise myself from my bed, but sunset is a possibility. I like the colours and reflections, your skies are always so good.
ReplyDeleteGlad you would like to have a go at this Pat. And sunsets are good to paint as they last longer than sunrises - not so stressful trying to paint it before it disappears! Clare
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