Lake with clouds

[img]https://watersolubleoils.forumotion.com/[/img]I am trying to get the right colours on the sky and finding it difficult. HELP!

What colors are you using so far. I always tend to use cobalt blue and them add some crimson. If I-m looking for grays, I mix the crimson and blue for a violet and then add varying amounts of yellow ochre. With stormier clouds I lleave some of the ochre standing on its own.

Judy

Great start Dale! Sorry I'm really terrible with landscapes so can't help you there but luckily we do have several people who paint landscapes.

I really love the grasses and the horizon line of trees.

Don't worry too much about duplicating the sky in the water - instead just treat it as water and it will look more natural. Great start.

Hi Dale:
We use Artisan paints, so I can name those specific tubes.
For skies, we tend to mix Cerulean Blue, Titanium White, maybe with some French Ultramarine Blue, then add a tiny bit of Dioxazine Purple if you want to go for evening sky. Clouds: maybe some French Ultramarine with Raw Umber to get grey, with Titanium White.

I've thought about this painting a bit and guess my comments are going to sound like Charlie Brown (wishy-washy) . However, the painting is definitely not wishy-washy!

In Carlson's Guide to Landscape Painting (page 37) he indicates that the sky "must be the lightest mass or value in a landscape. The reflection of a white cloud in a pool of water is no exception, as all lights lose something of their brilliance in being reflected." (He also mentions that snow is an exception, but of course that doesn't apply here.) This was what I kind of thought when I first looked at the painting.

BUT! I really like that my eye is drawn into the lake by the lighter values of the cloud reflections. Hmmmm. Maybe (in a very meek Charlie Brown voice) slightly tone down the nearest cloud reflections or break them up with a suggestion of a few wind ripple areas. This so that the viewer's eye progresses toward the far end of the lake. But then again .....

With the far end of the lake as the center of interest, I don't know as you need to do anything much to the actual sky. It reads nicely to me now.

A seemingly simple subject, but actually a very challenging one. I like it; you're doing well with it.

For what it's worth Dale one bit of advice given to me recently is that the reflection in water should be darker than the original
I like the painting
Jack

Re: Reflections - In this photo the reflections of the clouds are as bright as the clouds themselves (in a few areas the reflections even seem brighter). The reflections of the blue and the gray cloud shadows do look darker than in the sky (a la Carlson). So I guess I would add a caveat to this particular Carlson guide; reflections of white clouds may choose to ignore the guidelines.



The "whites" of the clouds seem warmer to me than their reflections. And Dale, that's what you have depicted in your painting . Maybe if the blue in the sky was lightened just a bit and the reflection of the blues darkened a bit (and maybe "grayed" some) that would help. It would add add even more contrast to the surface of the lake and keep the eye drawn to it. Of course, the most important thing is how the painting "reads" to you the artist, all other persons' ideas not withstanding.

Thanks for the advice everyone. I will see how this progresses and post the next stage.

I tried to remember everyone's advice and will go back over to posts in case i missed anything. This is the progress I made this weekend. I realized that my trees had grown om the left side so have cropped them and started workingon the low sky area again.

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It's coming together nicely. The sky and reflection is looking great. Judy

Thanks.

I don't think I would use the same composition. it just doesn't feel right.

It's looking like a lake now!

Dale your sky, lake and landscape each side are fantastic. Just one comment about the foreground. To me it forms a barrier. I covered it up with a card and, again, to me it transformed the aainting tremendously.
Best wishes
Jack

Wow, Jack - you are 100% correct. And that is funny - I had seen the same thing happen to someone else's painting and forgot about it. I will grow the water. Thanks!

That's what I was thinking, too - maybe more water to either the left or right going off the edge of the canvas and a few gaps in the foreground shrubbery where the water peeks through? Whatever you do, it's another winner! A beautiful scene.

Love the plant life around the water....looks very natural.

On the following website are some interesting comments on reflections being dark or light. It's by a photographer, but very appropriate for us analog types (painters ). http://www.bythom.com/ He changes the photo and writeup at the top every bit and that's the part I'm referring to. So this reference won't be helpful in a while.

Thanks Jim for that. It is illustrative but inconclusive. As it should be. His comments that what we create is our vision. There is no right or wrong answer. Trying as I do to understand Photoshop and watching the results of other photographers I am in awe at what some create. Many photographers are artists just as we.
We are trying to create an illusion. I once painted the sky in one work as green. I must admit, by error, then I decided to keep it. It balanced what was below. That one did sell. But that was in the days before I photographed my work. Sadly.
Let us never be bound by rules.
Jack

Good article, Jim, it reminds us to use our own creativity to produce our vision.

Judy

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So the first picture explains some of why my work gets hair in it. and the second shows where I am attempting to open up that barrier.

I thought you were adding some "cat-tails" there
I really like how this is shaping up now, it has a greater sense of distance and openess.

Oh Callie. That is funny.

Callie, That's good.....love you sence of humor. I think it is really opening up also....cute cat - right in the middle of things.

Looking good...the painting and the cat.

Judy