Twilight

"Twilight Finale"

12" X 16" Oil on canvas

Both of my daughters were here this weekend so it was a mad house. Once everyone settled in for bed I came into the studio to poke through my reference material. I was looking for something close to twilight and came across a photo that looked good enough to work. These pink clouds are actually in the photo and I've been working on those lately so why not do another. The foreground in the photo was very dark so I lightened it up a but...too much I think, but it shows the grasses here so I like it. Most of this was finished last night but I needed to tweak things this morning after the girls left.

These skies are fun to do and I've figured out that there are two ways to do them. I did this version as if doing an alla prima painting. It works putting the light pinks over the blues but you lose some very nice details if done another way. I had painted the blues, both the light areas painted with Cerulean Blue/White and that duller shadowed area that is a mix of Ultramarine Blue and Alizarin. That is the shadow color for the clouds where the light isn't hitting them. If I left this part sit ovenight to tack up then adding the pink highlights of the clouds would be much easier and keep from blending with the blue mix which dulls down the pinks very quickly. The thing about doing it this second way is that it is way easier to control the intensity of the pinks and the amount of spread and softeness to the edges. It would also keep the blues cleaner and not dull them down with the pink mixture....just some thoughts on it.
Here is a detail of the hillside....