Bleak Winter – Time Lapse Painting
Bleak Winter
This painting is about the sky and light. In the video you will see a number of sky painting methods I employ in many of my landscape paintings.
The first thing to get right are the paints you are going to use. I use the word ‘paints’ instead of colours because some paints do not produce good colours when mixed. The 4 colours (black & white are not counted as colours) used in this painting all mix well together. Indian Red is the only ‘dodgy’ colour in the bunch. Strong and rich when neat, it produces unpredictable colours in mixes.
In this painting I placed the blue (Cobalt Blue & white) and the sunlit clouds (Raw Sienna & White) as flat areas of colour with very little medium (Liquin). I am not going to talk about cloud shapes or perspective as I have discussed these issues elsewhere (here and here), this is about colours. By dragging a flat brush diagonally in both directions, then horizontal and vertical I blend the colours together increasing the randomness of cloud shapes and giving the overall sky a soft and misty look. In the areas where the colours mix you will see how important it is to have colours which mix well. Some of the Cobalt Blue will mix with the Raw Sienna, and vice versa, and the resultant overlap is a nice soft colour on the edges of the clouds.
The dark clouds colour is Cobalt Blue, Raw Umber, Indian Red and a little black to adjust the tone. When this is placed on top of the previous layer, mixing with what’s already there, it modifies the colour and lightens it, allowing lots of interesting shades to emerge. The dark colour can get much more lighter in colour, especially after the blending, so the dark shadows have to be re-established over and over again with fresh paint. The highlights on the clouds are produced by adding a lot of white to the dark mix plus a little of the Raw Sienna. The sun is almost in the centre of the scene, hidden behind the clouds so shadows are on the left or right, depending on the placing of the cloud.
Hopefully the video will make it a little clearer.
Love to watch you paint. Clouds I could use some practice on. Excellent post as always!
Magnificent work indeed. : )
Great post! I have a new page because of personal reasons. Please feel free to follow me again at my new url http://tigersgroves.wordpress.com I’m hoping to see you on my list soon. Thanks!
This was pretty darn amazing and so instructive. I am so honored you liked a painting I did. Am mostly self-taught and just experiment, not knowing what I am doing or what will come out. Really enjoyed this!
Thank you. I’m also self taught and I am happy to share my experiences of what I’ve picked up over the years.
Hi, Thanks for liking my first effort. Your blogs look very interesting, and I shall go back and look at a bit of your ‘history’ when I have the time. This is the first time I have had the chance to discuss painting methods with anybody, let alone art teachers – and am looking forward to sharing experiences – although mine may be a bit raw at first.
You’re welcome, and well deserved. By the way, I’m not an ‘art teacher’. Just another artist like yourself who enjoys sharing my experiences.