Stage 2 – Night Sky

I spent yesterday evening taping off the lower portion of the canvas and the inner sections of the trees that project up around the edges of the scene I’m imagining. It looked like a bad plan for a painting of mountains but I think it’s the best course. I began by applying liquid white, oil medium to the top portion of the canvas so that I could get very smooth wet-on-wet movement of the pain. I was working in less than optimal lighting and the sheen from the liquid clear made it difficult to see as I worked.  I used a combination of Prussian blue, phthalo blue, alizarin crimson, and white to soften the blackness of the night sky. Because the tree silhouettes will project with black into the night sky, I need the sky to be lighter and allow for that contrast.

Looking at my sky this morning, it’s very layered with clouds. I’m not sure I like the upsweep of color on the left.  I did break it up a little last night with a mix of Prussian blue and alizarin crimson, but I may play with the sky more today. The nice thing about the liquid clear is that it will allow me lots of time for wet-on-wet work.  The downside is that when I want to do traditional layered work, I’ll have to wait longer for that layer to dry.  I love the softness I can achieve with it, but I need to do all my wet-on-wet technique work today so that I will have time for it to dry and then do my detail layers.

I’m thinking that I may go ahead and do the same technique in the forest area to put in the green backlight that I want to paint the branches and tangles against. Or I may just apply a dark green base, I’m not sure. I’m thinking of using the black lines that the tape will leave for incorporating a pattern, almost a border, over which the black tree branches and foliage protrude. It just seems to lend itself to that.  We’ll see.  I do want forest section to have a very dark feel. I have to take care not to go too light. 

Today, I need to finish the sky background, begin the first layer of the aurora borealis, and lay in the dark greens for the forest background.  I am not sure if I should lay in a background color of blues for the lake or leave it black for contrast with what I think will be an iced over surface.  I can decide a little later on. I can always do it wet-on-wet if needed, although I do like the control of the traditional layering.

All the technical stuff aside, I had a great time painting last night! I used a 3 or 4 inch brush and just went at it. It was amazing to have so much space to fill.  It makes everything else I’ve done seem so frugal and picayune. There is a freedom that comes with holding that great big (for me anyway) brush in my hand and having to use my whole arm to paint.  It was very different and a great deal more fun than working on a small canvas, which is funny, because I’ve been so hesitant to work larger.  I know the proportions may prove challenging, since I’m not used to the size, but so far it’s a wonderful change.