Painting Morning Light, By Still Waters, studio painting by Everglades artist JoAnn Sanborn

By Still Waters

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Here's my new studio painting, By Still Waters. It's the first large painting I've done in a few weeks that isn't a commission, and I'll leave it for a day or two before doing a final check. The composition is a bit unusual, maybe too direct, and I may want to further define some directions for the eye. On the other hand, I like how it carries the eye up and around, so we'll see on a fresh look.

Different times of day require different lighting and color considerations. Here are some ideas for a painting you want to portray morning light. The colors are softer and more pastel, as the cooler purples and blues of the night sky still have an effect in shadow as the light comes up and brightens at the horizon. The morning sun is warm, so add a touch of yellow to the greens in light. Shadows can be laced with blue-greens to help portray the remaining coolness. Yellow Azo, or Lemon yellow are good yellows for morning, and can be toned down if too intense. Use a cooler yellow, like ochre or Naples in the distance and added to your greens as the foliage recedes.

The value of the shadows won’t be as dark as some other times of the day, so leave off some of the darkest darks. Remember that shadows are darkest near their source and lighten as they move away and are influenced by reflected light. Here the foliage is still in deep shadow. The tones will lighten as the sun climes higher in the sky.

Some mornings have a pinkish aspect. Portray it with a warm red with a touch of yellow, giving it a salmon glow. Near the distant horizon there may be both warm and cool tones in the sky. When the light is pink, the shadows will be warmed with reflected light taking on browner tones.

Painting Clouds, Morning Promise, studio painting by Everglades artist Jo-Ann Sanborn

Morning Promise

30x40 Sold

Morning Promise is a studio painting I've been working on over the last couple of weeks. The water reflections will be a little bit more defined, and the background brush will have a little more contrast before the finish.

This is a commission, and my client is coming on Monday to view, so I'll be finishing up this afternoon. I've got a second painting ready, too, something I often do for commissions. That way the client has a choice, and I have another nice painting for the shows.

While working, the clouds reminded me of a few years ago when I was teaching my first class and someone asked about painting clouds. We discussed them, I did a demo, but wasn't really prepared to "teach" them. My observations of clouds hadn't translated into intellectual knowledge in a way easy to pass on. Today I'm better prepared for cloud questions.

Clouds are part of almost every day here in South Florida. Observe them to determine their inherent character. There are several different kinds, and they each have their own particular characteristics. Sometimes there are several types in the sky at the same time. Here are a few basic hints for painting them.

1. Design your painting and determine where the horizon will be, and how much will be sky.
2. Determine the wind direction, usually from particular quarter of the sky.
3. Start with a grayed-down color darker than you need. Build the volume first.
4. Paint Quickly. Once your clouds are blocked in, don’t worry that the shapes in the sky change.
5. Clouds are made of water, so they will reflect what’s around and below them—the blue sky, the warm earth.
6. Use a mix of warm colors where the sun hits and cooler colors on the underside and in shadow.
7. Observe the density. Dense clouds reflect more light, edges are sometimes transparent.
8. Use atmospheric regression for clouds, too.
9. Overhead clouds are lighter and larger than those further away.
10. Clouds are warmest just above the horizon.

If you're observant, I'll bet you can add a few of your own!

Skies and Clouds, Late Autumn Studio Paining by Everglades Artist JoAnn Sanborn

Late Autumn

16x20

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When we look at the sky to paint it, our first question is to ask if the sky is active or quiet. If active, our whole painting might take on the feeling of the wind moving over the landscape. It will affect the way we portray the trees, grasses, and any other part of the landscape that can be affected by the wind. Sometimes, it's only high above that we see the clouds racing by, and the earth remains somewhat quiet. Whichever it may be, remember that they feeling of your sky will affect the rest of the painting, and that they must not conflict. Learning to put volume into your sky is one of the most basic challenges of the landscape painter. But anyone who has spent any time looking up will know that the sky is like and upturned bowl, and that the sky color at the very top is usually very, very different from the sky color at the horizon. If you can follow this color change all the way to the background in the painting, your sky will have volume and will recede into the distance and give your landscape volume. Generally, the clouds overhead are much larger than you would expect, and clouds in the distance shrink in size and fade in color just like the rest of the landscape does as it recedes. The sky is most often cool in color, and the sunlit clouds are usually warmer. Up close the undersides of the clouds are usually darker and more ragged, but still much lighter than land. As clouds are seen in the distance, their bases become flatter and there image sharper and clearer. The also be come smaller, and will be warmer in color as they near the land. Practically, it will help to have your brightest clouds nearer to center of interest of your painting. Much of the painting above was done with a palette knife, and there's a nice sense of clouds and movement in the sky.

Carlson's Theory of Angles, Night Mist Painting by Everglade Artist JoAnn Sanborn

Night Mist

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I learned about the planes of the landscape by observing the outdoor elements here in the Everglades over and over again. I didn't intellectually understand what I as seeing until it was simply explained in Carlson's Guide to Landscape Painting. John Carlson is a noted artist and teacher of the last century, who followed the Hudson River School style of painting.

His explanation of light hitting the landscape is easy to understand and makes sense. In the landscape the source of light is always from the sky. This light falls strongest on the flattest, horizontal plane of the landscape, the ground. That plane will always receive the most light and so be lightest in value. The light falls with medium strength on the slanted planes, like mountains and hills, so these will be medium value. The verticals, like the trees, being the upright plane receive the least light and so they will be darkest value.

As the painting progresses these value lessons can be applied to each element of the painting. A tree, for example, will be lightest at the top where the leaves form a flat plane for the light to fall upon, middle value in the middle as the light can't fall so directly, and darkest value on the trunk and under it, where little light falls. Carlson, however, cautions us not to break up the dominant value of the mass too much!

This is a broad, general rule of course, and there are times when it will be turned upside down. In the Everglades, the light sometimes comes from between the clouds highlighting one clump of trees making them very light and the ground much darker. Trees, even though they make be struck by extraordinary light will still retain their dark interior mass. This theory wouldn't work in snow, of course, when the snow mass would be lighter than the sky, and clouds in the sky require careful consideration of their relationship to the other elements in the painting.

My own work is often about the horizontals and verticals in the landscape. Here in South Florida we have no mountains and few hills, so must search for the middle values in our paintings. Our upright planes, for example the tall grasses, are upright up close but flatten out with distance, becoming flat planes with more light. With the open leave structure of many palms, light dances through the leaves and into the very heart of the tree form with the slightest breeze. In the Everglades we're often subjected to a changing light show that defies any rules!

In any case, learning about Carlson's Theory of Angles can help to define the large landscape elements easily into masses of values. If we interpret the relationship of these masses correctly it their exact color won't matter but the painting will make sense to the eye.

Rule of Thirds, Summer Silouette Studio Painting by JoAnn Sanborn

Summer Silouette

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One composition decision that deserves some discussion is the rule of thirds. It’s a very simplified version of the Golden Ratio. Dividing something into one third, two thirds is very pleasing to our eye, and is an easy way to make sure the compositional balance of your painting will work. This can apply to any painting, but I’ll describe it through the landscape here.

If you are planning to focus on the sky, make sure it has the larger, two thirds portion of the canvas. If your painting will be mostly about the land, make that the two-third portion. Let’s say the land will have the larger portion. Divided that portion into the foreground, middle and background, make sure the one you want to focus on gets almost two thirds of the space.

Carry this rule of thirds out on every decision in your painting. One third above middle gray in value, two-thirds below. One third of the colors cool, and two thirds warm. One third in sunlight, two thirds in shadow. One third complement, two thirds dominant color.

Pushing the ratios even father leads to more interesting composition. Use this information as a tool, not a formula. But if you have a painting that isn't quite working, applying the rule of thirds can sometimes help you towards a solution.

Light in the Landscape, Standing Tall painting by Jo-Ann Sanborn

Standing Tall

36x48

$2400

Learning about Light is one of the most important elements of all painting. Without light there is no color—think about getting up in the middle of the night. Everything is grey tones, and it’s not until the light comes up in the morning that we can see the actual color of objects. Remember that light must always travel in a straight line!

The way light moves over people or objects shows us their shape and form. In landscapes, at least dayscapes, the sun is the light source. Look closely outside, in natural light, to see how the sunlight is affecting your subject. The seasons and weather conditions will have an affect on the color and character of the light.

Determine where the sun is in relation to your subject. Is it overhead? Think Hopper, with harsh glaring light and strong contrasts. Shadows will be reduced in size, but not strength. The lightest and warmest areas will be the flat planes of the landscape. Sometimes on an overhead, overcast day there’s a wonderful radiating light.

If the sun is striking the landscape from the side, strong contrasts will reveal the forms. More texture will be visible and long shadows can add a design element to your composition. Colors deepen and are cooler going away from the light source.

Sometimes the subjects are backlit. The sky will always be the lightest and warmest part of the painting in backlit paintings and the forms will be in shadow. Tones are deepened where the light strikes. The backlighting can be unifying and set a mood for the painting.

When choosing and using the light for your landscape the most important thing to remember is that the sunlight must come from a single, consistent source. Don’t have your shadows going in different directions!

Florida Everglades Painting, Finishing a Painting

I’m still working on the color strategy and building the forms and will do this until they come into balance and make sense on the canvas. I won’t worry about getting an exact representation of the scene any more because I have a sense of the place. I'm not doing a portrait but will want you to know the character of the main palm before I'm through. As I work I identify with the subject(s) more and more closely, and by the time I’m done most of the forms will be as familiar to me as my family. At his point I have added lights and darks three times and there's beginning to be a sense of volume to the forms, and of light coming in. I've also added some clouds and color to the sky. I still have a way to go before I'm satisfied.

Knowing when a painting is finished is the most difficult part of the process. It's only finished when the creating artist decides it's finished! Some artists will consider a painting finished when there is still some of the canvas showing—leaving bits of white or undercoat to contribute to the whole. Some artists start in one corner and work directionally and will never again touch the laid-down bits. When the canvas is covered, they’re done. Some artists work over the canvas surface again and again struggling to bring their artistic vision into form until the canvas contains even a piece of the artist’s heart. But in the end each artist must find a combination of methods and visions that work for them, laying down the brush only when confronted with a satisfying whole.