Featured Image: Original Painting by Kasia Bruniany
In this post, I would like to share with you several keys to painting beautiful sunsets in the impressionistic and/or realistic styles.
The Common Problem Most Artists Face
I will begin with the problem that most artists face; they may not know that it is a problem, therefore their paintings are affected in a way that detracts from what could be something beautiful. Many artists who have skill in drawing and even in painting certain subjects run into this problem and can’t figure out why their paintings look amateurish in the end.
I am going to teach you a valuable lesson concerning the painting of sunsets AND give you exercises that will make your paintings look more professional.
How Photography Distorts Reality
The problem begins with photography. Most of us have been captivated by some photo of a sunset at one time or another and wanted to translate that photograph into a beautiful painting. What we may not realize is this: Photography, as dramatic and beautiful as it is, distorts the reality of colors in nature.
A skilled photographer may compensate for this, but there are thousands of photographs that reduce a sunset to a black silhouette against an orange/yellow sky. In order for the camera to capture the beauty and brilliance of the sun setting and the radiant color of the sky, everything else is often sacrificed—that is, clouds and the foreground become black, murkish silhouettes. It may look amazing in a photograph but in a painting it doesn’t.
In fact, the Impressionist movement was a historic reaction to the invention of photography. Photography could now instantly create portraits and landscapes that looked like their subject matter. So why bother with the realistic painting styles of the past? Artists began to use the rich colors of paint to portray what photography was missing: glorious color, color harmony, color in the atmosphere around us, and color in shadows and in skies.
Now, all rules in art can be broken for various end results, but only once a painter has learned how to capture what he/she sees, sticking with tested and tried rules laid down by artists in the past.
Notice in the painting above, that there is color everywhere. There is no black in the clouds or the foreground. In the foreground the closest thing to black are the dark greens which have been muted/greyed by adding the complementary color of red.
Essential Rules for Sunset Painting
First of all, I will give you a few rules to help you overcome the black silhouette amateurish syndrome:
- Do not use Black, especially black from the tube. Do not use it to darken colors or to paint actual things, like clouds and foreground silhouettes. You want your sunset to be filled with light and luminosity. You won’t get it with black. I will elaborate on this in a moment.
- If your sky is filled with black or charcoal colored clouds, or your foreground is a black silhouette, think creatively and put yourself in the scene as though you were actually there. Your eyes would NOT see jet black. There is color in every shadow and there is light even in a silhouette. Instead of using black, use darkened versions of colors. Do not darken them by using black. We will see how to do this in a moment.
- Keep your sky filled with colors which have been “greyed” – see the explanation and exercise at the end of this post. You want your sky’s values (degrees of light and dark) to be slightly darker than your sun, or the brilliant light that is present immediately after the sun sets, but you don’t want it as dark as your masses of trees, or your ocean waves. And the same thing applies to the trees, waves, etc. – no pure black and no use of black to darken the colors. Monet would not use black to paint his luminous artwork and neither should you!
Practical Tips for Improving Your Sunset Paintings
Here I’m going to give you a few definitions and explanations, and also exercises to help you grasp these principles:
Find a photo of a sunset that you would like to paint; but find one like I have outlined here—filled with black or dark shapes with no color and no light within. You are going to use it to paint a sunset, but you are going to alter everything utilizing the styles I have included as good examples here in this post.
You may use the examples I have posted or you can google “sunsets with luminous color”, or “sunsets by impressionists”, etc. Consider looking at the landscape paintings of Erin Hanson. Google “Erin Hanson sunsets”. You don’t have to paint in her style, but study her amazing use of luminous color in her skies, particularly her sunsets.
Learn how to “grey” colors. That means, you need to be able to gradually darken, or grey a color, without using black. So what do you do? First of all, google a printable color wheel for yourself:
Notice the colors that are opposite each other (directly across) on the wheel. These opposites are known as “complementary colors”. In other words, the complement of yellow is purple. The complement of red is green. The complement of blue is orange. Likewise, you can identify the complements of purple, green, and orange as yellow, red, and blue. Now what is useful about this knowledge? Without ever using black, you can darken or grey any color by adding varying degrees of its complement. Now you need to understand a distinction here: You can darken the color by using a dark variation of its complementary color. But you can also keep the color light, yet not as saturated (not as intense) by adding a little of the complement plus a little white.
Three Valuable Exercises
Choose your sunset photo, especially one that has those dark areas that I have spoken of. Then choose two or three sunset paintings from online that are filled with light and color. Use the photograph as reference for subject matter. But use the skies and darker areas in the paintings that you have found to see how they treated the darker areas in the sky and the land. Try matching their colors and using them in your painting.
Notice again how photography produces black clouds and black silhouettes. Now look at the following image, where the artist has creatively used different values of purples and blues to create this beautiful interpretation:
Next, go outside at dusk or dawn. At first you may feel that I am stretching a point when I say that there is color even in shadow areas. But if you put aside preconceived notions of how shadows look, and look with childlike eyes, you will begin to see that there are colors you never expected everywhere. Give it time. Try it on different occasions. The sunset will have colors you never expected: sometimes beautiful greens, lavender, magenta, peach, and a host of greys and shades in between. And the shadows beneath the trees will also be filled with less obvious colors; nevertheless they are there. On top of that, you are not gifted to create paintings that look exactly like photographs—otherwise you may as well just be a photographer! Give yourself the permission and freedom to experiment and to express yourself in colors you may have never used to depict the natural world. Interpret your sunset—don’t just copy!
A valuable lesson is to take your primary colors (I would suggest ultramarine blue, cadmium yellow light or an equivalent, and cadmium red or an equivalent) and see how many variations of these colors you can create by greying them with their complementary color and also their complementary color plus white.
Applying These Principles Beyond Sunsets
I hope you will find this article beneficial. IT APPLIES NOT ONLY TO SUNSETS, but to other subject matter as well.
Lastly, remember that it is all about seeing—learning to see differently. You must learn to see as an artist and not as a scientist! In the same way, as a believer you must learn to see through the eyes of the Spirit and not just as a “natural” man or woman.
In 1 Corinthians 2:14, the Apostle Paul says, “But the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” A deeper walk with God requires submitting to the Spirit of God and allowing Him to show us what He wants us to see through eyes of faith.
So I encourage you today: Grow as an artist and grow as a believer. And paint to the glory of God!
Blessings,
Mark
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