The Dark Side

Most of the time I seem to paint with fairly light and bright colors. Recently, I changed that and decided to try my hand — literally — at painting a darker landscape. Doing this painting felt much different, and in the end, I’m far from satisfied with it. Still, it was a good experience and an opportunity for me to learn to use colors in new ways.

I was hoping to create more of a “sun-going-down” effect, but the alizarin crimson behind the mountains doesn’t look quite right. I also tried to give the effect of an evening breeze blowing over the water. By the time I’d finished messing with it, the colors didn’t look right for the lake.

 

Nightfall

Although it’s hard to see the detail in my treeline, I was very pleased with that part of the painting. My trees actually do look like trees, and I got a nice variation in color.

All in all, it was fun to do something a little bit different, and working with darker shades will help me improve my abilities to show light more realistically. After all, you can’t show light without having dark.