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| The Big Blue Sky Pastel on Canson's pastel paper 9" x 12" |
I got sunburned on my face, hands, and feet doing this pastel painting. I forgot to take sunblock and my big straw hat.
On the bright side (pun intended) I found a new place for finding motifs--interesting and beautiful places to paint: to the west of downtown Eugene Oregon are wetlands and wildlife refuges. I can even get there by bike because the bike trail runs all the way through these beautiful areas.
Next time I go there I will go closer to sunset and not again at mid-day.
Would you still have enough light to paint by at sunset?
ReplyDeleteVal, There are several ways to manage a sunset painting: if using oil paint, premix anticipated color palette and use several brushes--one for each major color group, in order to spare a lot of brush rinsing--it is a race with the sun!
ReplyDeleteLast night I painted the sunset, using chalk pastels and I had very little trouble seeing what I was doing even though I was looking into a big blown out fireball in the sky. The sky was yellow sunshine beams with a fiery pink band close to the horizon line and the trees were dark shapes composed mostly of indigo blue, alizarin crimson, and viridian dark--the last three hues mentioned, very low (dark) on the value scale.
As a side note, in his later years, Monet banished black from his palette and when he wanted to make something dark he used the same hues: indigo blue, aliz. crimson, and viridian.