Into the blue
In this fourth article, ANN WITHERIDGE shows you how to tackle skies, essential for any successful landscape painting
In this series, we have been looking at composition, values and colour harmonies for landscape painting. Here we will be discussing skies, which are the most important element to think about, once we have done the composition and drawing. I love skies and their variety gives us an endless number of options for composition and for depicting the colours we see in nature.
Sky is the source of light: without it we would not see colours, so the colour and the mood of the sky dictates the mood of the painting; from sunrises to sunsets, overcast to sunshine, every sky will influence the overall feeling of your work.
BLUE IN THE SKY
A sky can make us stop in our tracks, especially when we see a yellow sky, an amazing sunset or shapes in the clouds. The colours we see are all due to the lengths of waves of light. The strongest wave is blue, which is why most often we see a blue sky and a blue sea since it reflects the sky – and the blue is the harmonising colour holding the painting together. But even this varies from the top to the bottom of the sky. Look above you and it is a redder blue, moving to purple, as the blue moves to the horizon line it becomes greener, for instance moving from Ultramarine Blue to Cerulean. This is because the lower we look, the more atmosphere there is between us and the sky. We aren’t seeing a flat surface, but a far greater distance than the landscape we see in front of us; imagine holding a card and tilting it towards you. If we think of Leonardo’s blue distant mountains, there is an even greater distance of view in the sky.
Always tone your canvas with a little warmth, perhaps a touch of Cadmium Red. Then mix up big piles of blues. Ultramarine Blue by itself is a little too inky so use blue with white and perhaps a touch of red for the top of the sky; as you move down the canvas add a touch of Yellow Ochre, or change blues and move into Cerulean. Phthalocyanine
Blue, which is often the pigment used in Cerulean
Blue Hue, is very different and can be quite acidic, so add some Yellow Ochre to temper it a little. ▸
TACKLING CLOUDS
Perspective works similarly with clouds. The ones above us are much closer to us, they will be larger clouds with bigger under-planes. The clouds nearer the horizon are much further away, so their shapes are smaller and the underplanes are narrower. Imagine the clouds are boxes floating in the sky varying in scale, but with clear side and underplanes: the transition can be soft and subtle, but they are still always there. Be careful not to over-soften or melt the edges.
ARE THE CLOUDS NEEDED?
The sky and clouds will change as you paint. Do we need the clouds? If your subject matter is already busy, you may want a clear sky to balance the landscape adding calm and support; the sky doesn’t want to compete with the subject. As in a still life, you don’t need to paint every fold in the fabric behind, so the colour and value of the background is important but not the detail. With a landscape the sky is the equivalent of the background, but it does set the atmosphere. I find it difficult to ignore or falsify the mood of the background when painting in the studio as it’s so essential when plein air painting.
A cloud is white, but every white has colour in it. Add a touch of Yellow Ochre to convert the warmth at the top with a touch of blue on the under plane. Avoid black or brown: try and find the colour in the values, keep it light and fresh.
Just before sunset the sky is often a wonderful green or yellow. Try to look for the colour we wouldn’t expect in the sky; it’s often only when we push colour, that we start to see it. Don’t be formulaic with your skies; really look at what’s there and then borrow the colours you’ve used in the sky and incorporate them into your landscape. Every colour we see in the landscape is bathed in the light from the sky, the colours may have more chroma or value, but there will still be an overriding colour harmony.
In this painting looking at Westminster, the sun moved around so the buildings were a near silhouette. This was very helpful, but it’s not the windows and architectural details that make the painting iconic but the silhouette of the building. We have to learn what to leave out when looking at a complicated subject matter. The sky was so stunning with wonderful effects in the water, so it would be too much to also put the information in the building. In this case, is the real subject the sky and the reflection in the water?