Yesterday I got out a little later in the afternoon, after painting for a few hours I made one last one with the moon over downtown. It was barely 5pm but the atmosphere was like night time. To do this painting I outlined most of the buildings and checked the perspective and proportions before filling in the colour blocks. It took patience and experience to know when the paint was dry enough to overlay the window elements and details. Because I was painting under orange light, I had to adjust the colours accordingly. Under orange lights I tend to paint the sky too green, and make the yellow too bright. Knowing this, I added more magenta into the blue, and tried to tone down the yellow. As seen under an orange light, the sky looked practically grey, and the yellow/oranges looked whiteish. Of course these considerations only matter when on location... at home in a studio one can have the ideal white light. However, to get a painting with this much character and authenticity one really has to be on location. Somebody walked by and said they liked the fact that I was painting on such a chilly evening.
Crescent moon chilly evening, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, December 2024
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