| An international directory of art and artists. A complete listing for art and artists around the world. Entries organised under states and countries. |
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Painting
Beautiful Skies
When doing oil paintings
of landscapes, the
way that the sky is
painted can set the
mood for the entire
picture.
A dark sky is often
associated with late
in the afternoon,
a light blue sky with
the brightness of
the middle of the
day and a purple sky
with approaching sunset.
A common mistake with
novice artists is
to use too few color
for their skies. A
mixture of dark blues,
light blues and plenty
of white makes for
a far more interesting
looking sky. |
There
are various techniques
that can be implemented.
Brushing on a good
thick coat of oil
paint, with light
blue on one area and
different shades in
other areas then using
a 1” wide brush
to pull colors from
one area to the other
in quick left to right
strokes can be very
effective.
Another technique
is to use plenty of
thinners, a mix of
50/50 linseed oil
and artists turpentine
is good. Cover you
entire sky area with
very thin paint and
then use your fingers
with the white and
various shades of
blue to construct
your clouds.
If there is going
to be any water in
your painting ie:
rivers, dams lakes
etc, then make sure
you use the sky paint
to roughly paint in
your water areas for
good color symmetry.
Painting beautiful
skies helps keep up
the motivation to
paint a beautiful
picture. Some artists
spend a lot of time
painting the clouds
into various shapes
to depict other objects
and add symbolism
to their works.
Using palette knife
for skies can be effective,
but does require a
lot more paint to
be used. Interesting
clouds can also be
created with the palette
knife.
Unless you are painting
a seascape, where
it is imperative that
the horizon is dead
straight, it is usually
not critical to have
your skyline dead
straight. Most often
in landscapes you
are going to have
mountains or hills
are other varying
landscape components
directly in front
of your sky which
will be at various
angles that hide the
straight line of the
horizon.
It is a good idea
to mix your sky colors
with yellow to create
the greens for your
painting, as well
as using premixed
greens such as sap
green, viridian etc.
This helps add color
uniformity to your
painting. The same
goes for your mountains,
mix reds with your
sky blues to give
you various shades
of purple for your
mountains. Even the
rich dark undiluted
blues can be used
for mountain peaks.
Try to avoid painting
a sun directly. If
you want a sun then
have it behind clouds
with the bright sunrays
in whites and yellows
showing through. Use
thick brush strokes
for this. It may be
best to let the blue
of the sky dry before
painting the whites
and yellows for the
sun beams over the
top, to avoid them
mixing with the blue
and ending up with
a green tinge.
If you are painting
the sky at sunset,
then a huge range
of colors from red,
to yellow, to purple
as well as blues can
be used. Again if
there is going to
be water in your picture
it is a good idea
to paint the water
at the same time as
the sky to get the
consistency of colors
and then paint the
landscape components
afterwards. |
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