The Painting Process - Issue Nº 9
In this series, I share the stories behind my paintings, my thought process, and the discoveries I make along the way.
※※※※
Plein Air Painting, Small Studies and Simultaneous Contrast
I did these four plein air gouache studies on the same day in the middle of the summer.
I painted the top two studies in the morning between 9 am and 10 am, while the bottom two were done in the evening between 7 pm and 8 pm. Each of them took me approximately 30 minutes. Their lengths range from 4 ½” to 5 ½”.
Even though the studies in each of the pairs were painted just 30 minutes apart, it is interesting to see how significantly the light changed in that time.
When I was painting the study above, the morning sun was still pretty low. The town was in shadow; the colors were mostly cool, except for the slightly warm lights bouncing between the buildings. The glistening light on the water in the bay was very intense. The water was moving with the tide, and even with the very bright light, I could still see some waves, so I added some of their patterns to my painting. It was a very high-contrast and dynamic scene.
What I found particularly interesting while working on this little painting was how I perceived the color of the mountain in the background. First, I painted it with a slightly muted blue, but every time I moved my eyes from the water to the mountain, the mountain appeared purple to me, a pretty saturated purple color. I rarely use saturated colors in my landscapes, but this time, I had to use dioxazine violet to make that mountain a muted lavender color to match how it appeared to my eyes as I moved them across the scene.
At that moment, I realized that my sudden perception of the mountain being so purple was the result of simultaneous contrast. Simultaneous contrast is a visual perception phenomenon that happens when two adjacent colors influence each other, changing our color perception. With any given color, the eye/brain generates its complementary color. You can observe this by staring at a saturated block of color and shifting your eyes to a white background - you will see the complementary color imposed over the white. The light on the water was quite warm and yellowish, so when I moved my eyes from the water to the town, the distant mountain and some of the town shadows appeared more purple to me than they really were because purple is the complementary color of yellow.
This is one of the explanations for why landscape scenes look so different in photographs than they appear to our bare eyes. Our cognitive processes play a huge role in how we perceive colors in a natural scene, a still-life arrangement, or anything else we observe directly with our eyes. That is why painting from life is so important and valuable. Our eyes don't just see a scene; they also affect the colors of the shapes in it, resulting in a vivid image. With our eyes, we can see what a photo camera can’t see. This is why plein-air paintings look so true to life when painted with careful observation.
I wasn’t sure about doing the second study that morning because I painted the first one pretty fast, and it seemed that the lighting conditions hadn’t changed much, and I thought that I would simply paint the same picture again. But I was wrong. If you compare the two morning studies, you can see that the light had actually changed quite a bit. In the second study (the one above), the sky and the mountain are lighter, the town looks warmer and is filled with reflected lights, and the entire scene seems to be warmer and lighter. The water looks calmer, and the shimmering on the water is more subtle.
I always pay a lot of attention to nuance and subtle shifts in color in my subjects, and even though the two morning studies look very similar, we can still see the subtle differences that add so much to a painting.
The evening studies were also painted 30 minutes apart. They are part of the same scene, but I slightly shifted my eyes to the right when painting the second study (below). By the time I started the second study, the light had become warmer. You can see that particularly in the colors of the mountain and the sky. Overall, the second study is warmer than the first one.
The largest difference between the morning and evening studies is that in the morning ones, the light comes from behind, which results in a stronger sense of light, darker shadows, cooler atmosphere and subtler colors. The town looks like a dark silhouette against the sky and the mountain. In the evening studies, the light is hitting the buildings directly, resulting in almost no shadows in the town. The warm evening light accentuated all the local colors of the rooftops, sunlit walls and other objects, resulting in much more colorful paintings.
Both of the conditions were interesting to paint, and I learned something new from each of these studies, which is always the case when it comes to painting from life.
I should also add that these two sets of paintings were done on different papers. The morning studies were done on Saunder Waterford 638 gsm cold-pressed paper, while the evening set was painted on Arches 640gsm hot-pressed paper. Cold-pressed paper, because it’s more absorbent, makes color blending easier, so you can achieve soft edges and smooth color gradations without effort. Hot-pressed paper makes it easier to distribute paint on its surface because there is less friction between the paper and the brush, and it allows you to paint faster, which is very important when it comes to painting on location. Both of the papers I used are fantastic and a pleasure to paint on. Their significant weight makes them feel quite sturdy, like an artboard, which is quite different from the thinness of more lightweight watercolor papers.
I have been asked a lot why my plein air studies are often so small. It’s because timing is everything when you paint on location. The sun moves quickly through the sky, changing the colors of objects and affecting the light and shadows in the landscape. When I paint on a small piece of paper or a small canvas, I only need to use a few brushstrokes to paint a shape. This allows me to capture the lighting condition and block in the main shapes of the scene quickly and accurately before the condition changes. I then use my plein air studies as color references for painting from photographs in the studio. They help me make my studio paintings look as if they were painted from a live scene.
I painted this tiny study on Saunders Waterford 638 gsm cold-pressed paper after finishing the two evening studies I have shown you in the photos above. This time, I moved my eyes to the left to change the view.
I hope you enjoyed this article and learned something new :)
Lena
Download my free 30-page PDF, “Everything you Need To Know About Gouache”
In this 30-page PDF you will learn:
How to decide which colors you need when you start with gouache and how you can expand your palette to make it even more effective.
What kind of storage palettes to use with gouache to prevent your beautiful colors from fast drying.
Why you need to use two whites with gouache.
How to choose the right paper and what kinds of brushes work best with gouache.
About the setup that I like using for plein air painting with gouache.
You will also be provided with many useful tips that will make your painting experience smoother.
