Work In Progress: Withlacoochee Flight, Update 3

Work In Progress: Withlacoochee Flight Update 3

            I’m going to do this painting entirely in colored pencil. The size will be 22” by 13”, and I’ll be using Stonehenge paper. The first step was to transfer the pencil drawing to the paper. I then started on the sky first.

            Although it looks simple, the sky color is not. The value is darkest on the left and at the top. The value progressively lightens downward toward the horizon and toward the right side of the picture. Sky color normally becomes more intense toward a point directly overhead, being lightest near the horizon. The sky color gets progressively lighter toward the sun – in this case, toward the right. I wanted to keep those characteristics in this painting.

            I used three colors for the sky – sky blue (FC), cloud blue (P) and blue slate (P). I started off by putting in a uniform layer of sky blue (FC). I carefully worked around the clouds and trees, including “sky holes” in the trees where I thought they would work. After the sky blue layer, I put in a layer of cloud blue uniformly over the same area I previously put in the sky blue.

            Next, I started back over the previous colors with blue slate, starting on the left side. Since I wanted a gradual fade-out to a lighter color toward the right and toward the bottom, I gradually decreased pressure on the blue slate beginning near the uppermost clouds, and continued fading it toward the right, and also faded it out downward toward the tree tops.

            By this point the color is beginning to intensify. I started another layer of cloud blue, starting on the right and worked toward the left. This will be a uniform layer over the entire sky. I’ll see how the coverage is after this layer and decide whether to add an additional layer of cloud blue before touching up with all three colors to finish off the sky.