 |
| Delicate Arch Under the Stars, 5x7" |
I painted this watercolor of Delicate Arch under a starry night sky in preparation for teaching my "Skies In Watercolor" class at the
Art Verve Academy This coming Saturday I will teach the session on how to do starry night skies. When I first learned how to do these kinds of skies myself (thanks to a
YouTube demo by Untamed Little Wolf), I fell in love with this way of treating the sky and transforming what would otherwise be an ordinary painting into something I felt was magical. When I was a teenager first discovering the night sky after having moved from a city to the country, I grew so enamored with it I thought I wanted to be an astronomer! (Watching Carl Sagan's
Cosmos series on TV also provided further inspiration). Alas I never became an astronomer, but now many years later I can channel my romance with the night sky into art! I found it can even be done in watercolor (with the help of a little bit of white gouache).
I want to show you a step-by-step in how I created this little painting.
Materials Used:
- Paper: Arches 140lb Cold Press watercolor paper
- Paints: DS New Gamboge, DV Red Rose Deep, MG Quinacridone Rust, MG Ultramarine, MG Quinacridone Violet, WN Winsor Violet, and WN Paynes Grey, WN Permanent White Gouache
- Brushes: Silver Black Velvet rounds 16 and 8, bristle brush
- Ink lines: Rapidograph .30 w/ Rapidograph Ultradraw Black India ink
The first step is to choose a subject to put under your starry night sky. You have a choice of creating a silhouette image of landscape features like mountains or trees (like in Untamed Little Wolf's video, linked above), or use a reference photo from a photo taken in daylight and turn it into a night scene. To do the silhouette is more in line with how our eyes, and most cameras, would actually sense the scene. It's the nature of the limited dynamic range of our vision, and especially of cameras. There is an element of realism in that approach.
But what if you had eyes that could see BOTH the stars and colorful nebula gas of the night sky AND had good enough night vision to see the landscape features in all the glory of color and light? Maybe we could even see the "aura" of a place... Wouldn't that be magical? I think so, and that is why I've fallen in love with this approach!
 |
| Reference Photograph |
 |
| Pencil Drawing |
I have found that I really enjoy turning reference photos of interesting landscape subjects -- even if photographed under an ordinary blue or overcast sky -- into an imaginative and fanciful painting of a special place under a starry night sky. In this case I chose Delicate Arch from a trip a few years ago. We had hiked the 1.5 miles to watch the glow of the setting sun on the arch. I traced the photograph to get the pencil lines onto the watercolor paper. I like to tape my paper to a plexiglass sheet, in this case using blue painter's tape.
 |
| First and second wash |
Since starry night skies use such dark and intense pigment, I find it best to paint (most of the) landscape features before painting the sky so I don't run the risk the sky bleeding into my landscape if my damp brush happens to touch the sky. So my first washes were on the arch and the distant land ridges. I like my first wash to be more of an underpainting of rose and warm yellow tones; I learned this trick from artist
Jonathan Frank and I like how the underpainting creates a rosy glow to the landscape. I apologize for forgetting to photograph after making the underpainting, but in the photo at left you can see remnants of the rose and gold tones. On the arch, I didn't bother to stay within the lines.
After the underpainting dried, I did a second wash on the arch itself to lay down the lighter tones of the local color. I did drop in darker tones (a bit of violet) for the areas destined to be deep in shadow.
Though I normally would further develop the landscape before painting the sky, I decided in this painting to paint the sky next. As my up-coming class was focused on the sky, I wanted to make sure I dusted off my technique for the sky ASAP to be ready to teach it.
 |
| Wet the sky area with clear water |
 |
| Drop in warm yellow and rose for the horizon |
As we are working the sky wet-into-wet, the first step is to wet the sky area with clean water using a large brush. From here on, we will work steady, dropping in various colors of paint, before the paper dries too much. So be ready! Mist your paints; we will be using the New Gamboge (or you can use raw sienna), Red Rose Deep, Ultramarine, Winsor Violet, Quinacridone Violet, and Payne's Grey. The first colors to drop in are the warm yellow and rose at the horizon. This suggests that there is enough of the setting sun below the horizon to still impart a glow. And...I like how it adds more color to the sky.
 |
| Drop in ultramarine |
We will be leaving some of the paper a bit white (from the left side of the arch diagonally up to the upper left corner of the painting) to simulate the Milky Way, so here in this image you can see that I drop ultramarine around this area, and spreading out above the horizon. I am dropping in fairly dense paint, my brush is getting paint directly from my palette well and not a diluted pre-mixed puddle. We want the sky to have enough dark value and vibrant color, so
don't dilute your paints with water too much.
The next paint to drop in is the Winsor Violet. You don't have to use Winsor Violet, any brand of dioxizine violot (PV23) will do. I also like Daniel Smith's Carbazole Violet and M. Graham's version of it. I forgot to photograph the step after the violet and before the Payne's Grey; I added the violet between the ultramarine and the yellow/rose at the horizon.
The next step is the Payne's Grey, and this paint is crucial for the dark sky. And for this paint I won't try any other than Winsor Newton because it mixes well and is transparent. It works great for me and I'm afraid to try anything else with the risk of getting something too sooty or opaque. Notice I am dropping in the Payne's grey at the upper reaches of the sky, around the "Milky Way" and down to the horizon opposite the yellow/rose tones. I am adding the Payne's over the existing ultramarine and violet, allowing them to mingle together and provide interestingly-colored darks.
So the basic sky-work is laid, now time to add more color while the surface is still wet:
 |
| Deepen the rose at the horizon |
 |
| Drop in ultramarine bordering the "Milky Way" |
 |
| Drop in violet bordering the "Milky Way" |
 |
Drop in Q. Violet bordering "Milky Way",
and above horizon |
Okay, whew, take a breather and let this dry! I think we have enough value and color in the sky. We'll know when it dries. If we don't, we can always go in with a second layer after the first layer dries and deepen color and value if needed.
I love the next stage -- spattering in the stars. I used to use acrylic white ink because it makes nice opaque stars over the dark sky, but I found it difficult to fully wash out of my bristle brush so I switched to white gouache. The stars are still opaque enough and the cleanup is easier. You can use an old toothbrush to spatter on the paint, but I have an old favorite bristle brush (an oil painter's brush) that makes spatters just the way I like them. I get a nice thick consistency of gouache and water and load up my bristle brush. I practice my spatters first on a scrap paper (that has color, so you can see your spatters). I cover up my landscape features with tissue paper so I don't spatter white gouache onto my arch too!
 |
| Spattering in the stars |
 |
| My gosh, it's full of stars |
So with the sky complete, it's time to work on the landscape, developing the shadows and midtones (and local color in the case of the distant ridges!). Most of the local color is using Quinacridone rust, mixed with rose, violet, blue, and even a bit of Azo Green.
 |
| Landscape features painted |
