TIME OF DAY

If you are painting a sunrise or sunset, you are looking for a specific time and your window of opportunity might only be half an hour. Painting in the day, you can build up the information more steadily and get a much better sense of place. Nature passes you by as you contemplate the landscape. I like to paint towards the later shadow patterns and light. Have an understanding of where the sun will be travelling and how the shadow patterns will move. If you are doing your painting over the course of a few sessions, this makes it much easier to understand. It is important that, once you have decided on the subject matter and the value patterns, you don’t chase them, keeping to your original value pattern. A small sketch and returning to the same area will really help you with this.