SUNRISE/SUNSET

 

Painting sunsets can be a lot of fun. There are three main things to keep in mind:

1. Have a "buffer" or barrier between colors that could mix and make a muddy color.

2. Allow your colors to blend gradually, so that you don't end up with "stripes" of color, instead of a gradual mix from one to another. 

3, Know which colors are going to make the blends you want.

If you have a particular picture in mind, decide which colors are the most important. For example, if you have a lot of gorgeous purples, make certain the blue and the pink/red used make a good purple. Remember the split primary palette? Cool blues (like cobalt and French ultramarine) with cooler (pinker) reds make beautiful purples. If you use a warmer (oranger) red or a greener blue, you will NOT get a good purple.  So do some color swatches to make sure you will like the colors on the final piece.

On the left side I used cobalt blue, then magenta, then new gamboge, back to magenta.

In the right is cerulean (a greener blue), primary red, new gamboge, then primary red again.

Just trying out colors.

Note ON MAGENTA: My magenta is a very pink color, like the primary magenta used in a printer; but I noticed that some brands Magenta is almost purple. If your magenta looks purple, use something that looks pinker to you...quin rose, rose madder, permanent rose, something like that. Just so long as it doesn't lean to orange.

Most of the time, sunsets are done largely wet into wet. So for this first practice, wet a piece of paper, shiny but not puddley.

*Remember, your colors will fade as they dry. If you want vibrant color, the paint will be a thicker mixture when you apply it. (Not out of the tube thick, just not watered down as much). Your paper water + your paint has water = watered down paint.

I like to use a 3/4" flat brush for sunsets. After wetting the paper, I put a strip of yellow where my sun will be. Leaving a thin strip of white at the bottom and top, I paint in a magenta color above and below the yellow. I rinse my flat brush, squeeze water out, and use the flat brush  to blend the yellow and magenta into an orange. (I still have yellow, then the orange blend, then magenta) 

The paper is still damp, so I start from the top and add my blue, (cobalt or ultramarine) letting it blend into the magenta to make purples. 

5 WAYS TO CREATE CLOUDS

1. While paint is wet, use a paper tissue to blot out some whites..

2. While paint is wet, use a "thirsty" brush to pull out some cloud shapes.

3. Using a small brush, dot some dark color (I used purple mixed from magenta and blue)

to create some distant clouds. For larger ones, paint it on in small spirals. The sky should be damp, but not shiny.

4. After the paint has lost its shine, but is still not dry, drop clean water onto areas to create blossoms.

5. After the paint is dry, scrub out some whites. You can also gently wipe over some unwanted large blossom shapes. You can gently "scrub" out a sun. 

USING GUM ARABIC

Gum arabic is a crystal substance that is ground and added to water to create the binder for your watercolor paints. (except for the QoR brand, which uses a recently developed chemical binder). The binder is added to pigment to create all the beautiful colors for watercolor. It holds the paint together, helps it diffuse in a water solution, and glues it to your paper. So it is perfectly safe to use with your watercolor brushes.

Take a small amount of gum arabic and paint it over your horizon in a circle for the sun. If you want to use it to make some clouds or waves in the water, you can do that also. DRY it completely. (you can use a hair dryer.)

You are essentially using the gum arabic as a resist. I use this on moons and suns that I want to have a soft glow around the edges instead of a hard edge that miskits leave. 

Because gum arabic is completely water soluble, I can't use heavy amounts of water over it. So I paint the sunset a little dryer. Instead of wetting the entire paper, I just wet the top where I'll be putting my blues and purples. I'll start with blue, work in some magenta to create purples, then close to where my sun is, I'll paint over with yellow and create some oranges, leaving some yellows. I try not to swipe over the gum arabic more than once or twice. Then I can continue to the bottom, changing over to magenta again. 

When the paper is completely dry, I can use water and a soft brush to gently swipe over the gum arabic and blot it with a paper towel. In the picture below you can see what a soft white area it leaves. You can use this on moons also.

In the previous pictures you are using the MAGENTA or Permanent Rose or other pinkish color as a BUFFER or barrier between the blue, purple and yellow. If blue touches the yellow, it will go green. If purple touches the yellow, it can make gray or brown. So you need a buffer color in between, and in the first two pictures, that was red or magenta.

In the next exercise, you'll use WHITE as a buffer between colors.

This is done in two stages: wet on wet; then dry completely; then wet on dry.

Again, wet the entire paper, shiny but not puddley.

For this one I am using new gamboge (a warm yellow), transparent pyrrol orange, and permanent red. (any warm red will do) I am also using blue to show how not to mix orange and blue.

Work diagonally this time for a more dynamic sky. With the blue, paint across the top left corner in an angle. Leave some white, then paint a thin strip of blue at the same diagonal. Then do another strip of blue and leave white. If the blue starts to move too much into the white cloud, use your thirsty brush to wipe it off. 

Then add some red to the bottom below the last cloud, then orange, then yellow, then orange again. 

When you are happy with it, dry it completely. 

When the picture is dry, gently wet the clouds, working one at a time. Into the cloud you can introduce some orange, just very pale in some, darker in the ones closer to the horizon. Keep the edges as soft as possible. 

When it is completely dry, you can go back and add in dark clouds, like the second picture below.

In the first one, I made a row of fence posts in perspective. Note the shadow is quite long, indicating a late time of day.

I'll do more to this one later. I just decided to make a horizon of dark trees. 

Now turn your sunset into a landscape. Add palm trees, waves in the water, fishing boat, mountains, whatever your heart desires. It will mostly be in sillhouette, so you just paint right over everything you've painted so far. Good way to cover up a part you don't really like. 

I turned my purple and yellow sunset into palm trees, using purple and turquoise against the sunset.

One last bit about using a flat brush. They are wonderful for spreading water across the page quickly. And they work very well blending two colors together in horizontal strokes, both wet in wet and wet in dry.

If you see that you are getting "stripes" instead of blends, use your flat brush to blend the color together in long horizontal strokes. If the paint is very wet, use a thirsty brush. If the paint is dryer, dampen the brush a little to encourage blending.