![]() Some modern digital cameras can take remarkably good photos at night-especially from a tripod, but they will bear little resemblance to the scene as the eye can see it. While it may be tempting to merely snap some photos and then try to paint the night scene back in the studio, this is a foolish assumption. It was a challenging subject because of all the different colors of lighting, from neon, to halogen floods, white Christmas lights, traffic signals, walk lights, and both sodium vapor and LED street lamps illuminating the busy intersection! A cornucopia of light temperatures and intensities. I chose to paint the interesting little high-peaked building which may have been a gas station in the last century, but which now is a bistro. ![]() In fact, the people who tend to be attracted to our activity are always simply curious about the painting process. There is more security in painting with a group, and if we are wearing our Night Light hats, then we have another security advantage since our lights tend to blind anyone we look at! That being said, we have never experienced any problems in the years we have painted at night. It is important also to consider security when selecting a site to paint at night-especially one near two bars, like ours was. We chose an urban site for its accessability, subject matter and wide variety of lighting. Transparent Yellow Green, Cadmium Yellow Medium and Ultramarine Blue are optional colors.Ī few nights ago we taught the first of three plein air nocturne tutorials to some students who had never painted at night before. We are illustrating here a larger set of palette colors than one might normally need, to try and cover a variety of different lighting situations -especially city street lighting which can vary these days from yellow to bluish in cast, depending on the type of lamp. What an opportunity, then, is the nocturne! Like anything, it takes some trial and error to figure out the palette colors and the technical approach to night painting, so we decided to give you a "leg-up" by introducing our nocturne palette colors. We learn how to use and exploit a limited color and value palette to suggest spatial depth and form.Īll of the truly accomplished painters whose work we admire have these skills well in hand but it may have taken them years to master them. That skill improves all of our paintings. At night we also learn to create simplified compositions which are strong in design instead of superfluous details. That discipline helps us to see the daytime world with greater clarity. For instance, darkness forces us to focus on the large masses first. We firmly believe that more painters should try painting at night because there are many learning benefits in the practice for an artist. ![]() We tend to paint nocturnes year round, but for most artists, the first warm, moon-lit nights of spring signal that nocturne painting season is open again.
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