Night Fishing: Analogous colours & Impressionist technique

This is an analogous painting exercise for my Impressionist painting class. Working from a black and white photo,  the aim is to work with a limited palette of analogous colours and create the gradations of light to dark.  The logic behind the palette is to choose the darkest colour and the lightest colour using colours that are in the same family.  In this case I was using ultramarine blue, phthalo blue and phthalo green.  The sttongest highlight was a cadmium yellow for the moon and water reflections.
The images below show the progression of the painting.  This first stage of the painting was created with just ultramarine blue.  When the paint was dry, I mixed a palette of analogous colours (see on the bottom).

The drawing is kept very simple.  Small individual brush strokes are used to loosely indicate the major shapes of light and dark.

I continue to build up the surface with the different tones of ultramarine blue.  I let the paint dry and then go on to recover the surface with the analogous colours.

I start with the sky, using the phthalo green mix for the moon and then progressively lay in the the relatively darker colours in the sky then in the water.

Once the whole surface is equally covered with the blues and blue greens, I finally add the pale cadmium yellow in the moon and water.

Analogous colour palette:

Here is a close-up of the surface showing the individual brush strokes and the texture created by superimposing the paint:

April Reflections Lake Brome

April Reflections, Lake Brome
16 x 20 inches, oil/canvas

                               

This is the view from our cottage in the Easter Townships in Quebec in early spring.  I find the beauty of the mountains and the lake breathtaking, and I never tire of looking at it.  There will more paintings of Lake Brome to come.

Below are a few images that show how the painting evolves from the initial under painting to the final work.  The under painting is an essential element of my painting process.  It allows me to quickly visualise the relationship of composition, shape and tone.

The canvas is toned, wiped down and then large shape are quickly drawn in.  The clouds are painted in with a broad gestural stroke to get the feeling of how they sweep across the sky.

Here is the finished under painting.  The clouds and their reflections in the water are more resolved This under painting is an initial blue print for the colour that will follow once the surface is dry.

This is the first layer of colour.  The whole canvas is worked up with colour.  When it is dry a second layer of colour is laid in.  Below is the finished painting.  The colours and shapes have greater detail and they have  evolved from the initial under painting.  Painting clouds reflecting into the water was a great challenge!