Bill is playing with colors in this part of the painting. He introduces just a touch of violet into his blue. Not much! Bill’s paint is very rich in pigment – much higher than other vendors’ paints. A little of Bill’s paint goes a long way!
Watch how he corrects his painting when he realized he had too much violet in the foreground! Do you see the change in the color as he adds more Prussian Blue? Long sweeping strokes with the 2 1/2″ brush help to mix and distribute the color on the canvas.
Bill gets into a discussion on how to create depth in your painting. This is so important and is a basic element that Bill uses in almost every one of his paintings. A dark foreground getting lighter as it approaches the horizon provides a “flat” fore and mid ground. Bill also discusses how you can reverse the process. You can have a dark horizon and make it lighter toward your foreground area. Either way will work.
When Bill creates his “center color” (tinted with Phthalo Green), his brush is clean…opps…it was supposed to be green, but did you see the violet still left in the brush? That violet “tainted” the effect he was trying to create. (We warned you about the rich color in Bill’s paint didn’t we?) But watch how Bill “fixes” it. He picks up Phthalo Green ONLY in his brush and gets rid of the excess violet. This is the beauty of oils! You can fix almost any mistake. No happy accidents here that we cover up. We fix problems and control the canvas. Everything Bill does is deliberate!
Important takeaway: Once you leave the light area and go into the dark, do NOT return to the light area. Your brush is picking up “dirt” (paint) and you don’t want to put it back into your light areas.
Andrew Sitton says
I’ve been painting rather flat skies. The almost random way Bill applies the paint for that mottled effect gives a head start on the clouds… i.e. much less work. Great!