Daybreak

This painting changed course a number of times before the final was decided. I was intending to have a painting with a blue grey look of early dawn with a lot of emphasis on the sky. I spent a lot of time getting the sky right and when the plan changed it was almost completely covered by trees, which meant scraping off the sky paint to make the application of the darker colours easier. The theme of the blue grey morning will have to wait for an other time. The overall plan of light creeping into the dark places where night hides has been achieved, just in a different way.

The introduction of green (Chrome Green Light) at the later stages of the painting was a bit tricky as it wasn’t in the plan from the start. Usually if I was going to use a colour as strong as this green I would make sure it was used elsewhere in the painting especially in the sky mixes to produce a natural harmony of colour. It worked out OK in the end as most of the sky was covered with trees and these had green in their mixes.

The colours used were: Burnt Sienna & Raw Umber (red), Raw Sienna (yellow) and French Ultramarine (blue). Also Chrome Green Light, black and white.

I am preparing 2 videos at the moment, one for the previous painting and also this painting. Hopefully they will be available for you before the week is out.