How might you go painting in the rain and over cast? Apparently this is presenting a problem since only one other showed on Saturday. The forecast was 90% rain and drizzle to last all day. As it turned out, the forecast was right. You never know. So we found some shelter and enjoyed it anyway. The French easel tipped over the canvas and palette along with overhead shrubery provided enough protection. A little mist in the oils was overcome with thicker paint.
Against the Odds, 10x12, Oil on board
The light is quite different tahn that on a sunny day, never mind a sunny day during the golden hours. So this fact alone presents an opportunity to train your eye to pick up the cooler light key. So the light key is cool and the colours in the near ground are saturated. This occurs with the help of the rain and the absence of the bleaching power of the sun. People often mix up the difference between saturated and light colours. Saturated has to do with intensity whereas light is a value condition. You will also find there is a lack of form defining shadows and the values are close together. So for representational artists it is more challenging to paint in these conditions. But it is your job to make a painting out of it. The full colour spectrum is still present in all value/colour masses but it is more difficult to see and capture.
For this painting I used two brushes - a #12 bristle filbert, and a #8 bristle filbert - for the lighter values. From the base palette (Ultramarine Blue, Viridian, Cad Yellow Light, Cad Yellow Deep, Alizarin and Titanium White) I mixed a blue gray and a warm gray - I did not have a tube of these with me. I used these colours in the sky, and painted various warms and cools into them. I also used these pools of colours in the other mixtures throughout the painting to take the edge off and add harmony.
No comments:
Post a Comment