Tips for Painting The Night Sky

'Nightfall'            11x14         pastel         ©Karen Margulis
available $165

Eclipse fever is reaching a peak. In Marietta Georgia we are within an hour or so drive to the path of TOTALITY. I have family in this area and my plans were to take a drive and experience the total eclipse. Traffic is predicted to be terrible so I may just stay put and experience the partial eclipse at home. I wasn't able to get glasses either.  But with all the hype I decided to paint the sky today.

I started this beach sunset painting a few weeks ago but didn't quite finish. It needed a few stars and brighter light at the horizon. This was a sunset I shared with good friends several years ago in South Carolina. The sky was amazing!

I enjoy painting the night sky. The challenge is to give the sky a sense of air and depth even though it might be very dark. I have a few tips for painting successful night skies.

• Observe the sky in the evening. Spend time just watching from twilight until total darkness. Make notes about the colors and values you see. How do they change? Soak it all in. These observations will help you when having to work from photos.

• Take night photos at twilight. When the sun has set there is still some light in the sky. These deep dark and rich blues of early evening make for the most interesting night scenes. Even better is when the lights begin to come on. These little lights add even more interest to the night sky.

• Avoid using BLACK pastel. We tend to think that at night the sky is black.  Even when the sky appears very dark painting it with black will make it look flat and heavy and dull.  Choose dark value blues for a more believable night sky.

• There is often a gradation of color seen in the night sky. I like to use my darkest cool blues for the zenith (top) of the sky and gradually transition to rich warmer turquoisey blues closer to the horizon. Scroll down to see samples.

Black vs. Deep Blue. Which do you prefer for a night sky?

Starry Sky a sliver of the night  11x4 

A selection of beautiful deep blue pastels perfect for the night sky

 The next time you are inspired to paint the night sky see how beautiful it can be with blues!

Painting Lights at Night ...My Favorite Resource

'Bourbon Street Lights' 8x10 pastel ©Karen Margulis

painting available with Paypal or check $145

How do you get lights to glow in a painting? It seems like it would be a tricky thing to paint and I struggled with it. Then I discovered Doug Dawson's book Capturing Light & Color with Pastel. This is one of my favorite books on pastels and I am always referring to it. It is full of great information for beginner to advanced pastelists and every page is a treat as it is filled with Doug's wonderful paintings and demos. It is one of those books that has layers of information. The more I learn about painting the more I get out of this book. Here are just a few of my favorite chapters:

• Solutions to Color Problems
• Painting Negative Shapes
• Painting Backgrounds
• Painting Water
• Creating Depth with pastels
• Capturing Light

'Wild Times in Wildwood' 5x7 pastel

I plan on posting a night scene demo soon but here are a few tips for painting glowing lights at night

1. The glowing light is just an illusion and to pull this illusion off you need to surround the light with values at least 4 or 5 steps darker.
2. To get the feeling of the light the rest of the painting needs to be painted darker than it really is.
3. You need to determine the color of the bulb...is it yellow? yellow orange? The yellow bulbs are brightest and more yellow at the center and become more orange at the edge of the bulbs.
4. All lights are surrounded by halos which are even more pronounced in rain or snow. Look for the halos!
   

If you want more tips like these then you will want to get Doug's book. It is currently out of print but can be found used on Amazon or Ebay. My husband found one of my copies at a garage sale. I actually have two copies in case I lose one! Yes that is how much I love this book!
Visit Doug Dawson's website Here

Rising Moon

'Rising Moon' 10x8 pastel

Here is a night-time seascape. Imagine a cool and quiet evening at the beach. The wind has died down and you are dressed for the cold so it is very pleasant and refreshing to be out on the beach watching the moon rise. A few stars twinkle above as the clouds clear off. It is very peaceful with just the sound of the gentle surf.....Those were my thoughts as I painted this scene.

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Price: $145 USD
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Evening Marina View SOLD

'Evening Marina View' 5x7 pastel

I never realized how beautiful the landscape can be in the evening. When the sun goes down and the lights come on....there are many new and exciting possibilities for paintings. Never again will I be able to put my camera away when the sun goes down. This is a view across a marsh looking at the distant lights of a marina. It is just 5x7 but I know I'd like to try a bigger night scene soon.