Woke up today to really thick fog, but no rain so we were off to the Birch State Park at Owl’s Head, Maine. It was fabulous, great atmosphere, wonderful light, and a scene that changed every 10 minutes. It created the perfect opportunity to work on the light/color of the sky and its’ relationship to the water and every object that is facing up towards the sky.
When you begin a painting about overcast or lifting fog you need to understand that the value and color of the sky and the water will be almost the same. You should paint the sky all of the way down through the trees and water, making sure the color and values are close. Keep everything very sublime and light filled and remember to keep the values of your darker objects a middle value so they feel like there is mist or atmosphere in front of them. This is my morning demonstration for the group.
Another quick demonstration, my goal was to keep the background really light and soft and really make the foreground feel related in color and value, I think it worked pretty well. It is a 12 x 16 painting on 300lb cold press paper.
This is really fantastic. I so wish I could get to one of your workshops Steve – but I live in Northern Ireland!
Moira I will get to Ireland soon. See you then