Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Skies - Three Works in Progress

Today I was painting with the Buckhorn Tuesday Painting Group and we had Emil Varga as the instructor who was demonstrating different skies.














Dramatic

In the first painting the horizon line was masked out using a piece of tape and the paper was wet above the tape. The dark clouds were created with a mix of French ultramarine blue and burnt sienna on one side and the other side was a mix of Cobalt blue and burnt sienna leaving a white area slightly off center. The paint was sprayed with water and the colour was rolled around on the paper to create cloud shapes.

Each layer of paint was slightly thicker and darker than the one before and added into the corners of the painting, sprayed with water and rolled around the mix with the under paint.

A few areas of Cerulean blue were added into the clouds toward the bottom of the sky, sprayed with water and rolled to mix in with the existing paint. Then the painting was set aside to dry.














The next one was of a graded sky using three colours and glazing each layer over top of the one below.

The horizon line was put in using masking tape and the paper was wet above the tape. Using pure new gamboge the paint was swept into the area just above the tape in a diagonally upward stroke to create interest and movement.

The painting was set aside to dry before the next colour could be applied.














Pale Sky

Clear water was applied over the paper and  permanent rose was applied just slightly over lapping the layer of new gamboge and upwards leaving some of the area at the top of the painting without paint. It was then set aside to dry.

The paper was once more wet and this time painting from the top of the sky down into the permanent rose, Cobalt blue was applied.

Once again the paper was set aside to dry completely.














A Patch of Blue

For this painting the tape was applied on two different levels the highest was the bottom edge of the farthest island and the lower line was the bottom of the closer island.

The edges of the islands were lightly drawn in as a guide and the paper was wet above pencil lines.

A mix of French ultramarine blue and burnt sienna was brushed into the sky in various areas, sprayed and rolled around leaving some areas of the sky white. Pure burnt sienna was added into the sky sprayed and rolled always trying to keep some areas of white. Pure Cerulean blue was brushed into the bottom of the sky and rolled upward into the clouds.

A little pure Cobalt blue was added into the upper part of the cloudy sky in a couple of places, sprayed and rolled. More colours were added into the clouds until I liked the way it looked (and before I made a muddy mess of it).

I will post these paintings as more work on each of them is completed.

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog and look at the artwork.