Painting a nocturne

Fresh paint - just finished

Painting a nocturne is a challenging proposition for the oil painter who is used to painting realistically. The problem arises with the fact that things are dark at night and therefore making it virtually impossible to get usable reference. And even if you manage to get reference through long exposures or some other means, representing it in a painting that's meant to portray the night accurately would result in a painting with very little details.  It would necessarily need to be predominantly black or very nearly so.

So, the reality is, lighting and details in nocturnes aren't exactly natural.  However, successful nocturnes are believable because our minds imagine the moonlight to be much brighter than it could ever be (I think I read somewhere that moonlight is something like 20,000 times weaker than sunlight).  That reality aside, if we start with a reference with strong overhead lighting (like mid-day), and paint it with a darker sky and less contrast, we can trick the mind into substituting the sun with the moon since we tend to think of the moon as shining directly from the middle of the sky. Of course, we also have to create an overall bluish hue as we tend to think of nighttime as being cooler than daylight.  I've found a great way to do this is through the use of glazes (that's right, it's plural, glazes, usually more than one).  You can get an overview of how I do that by watching the short YouTube video below.

The full project is included in my Advanced Oil Painting Techniques and Tactics course, found here.

I also have the full project broken out of the course in case you're interested in the step-by-step project alone. It can be found here.

A complete listing of all the courses I currently have available can be found at simpleapproachoilpainting.com

"Midnight Snack"
Oil on Canvas
28"x22"
Available

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT

I have a very special announcement and I'm asking for your help. In return for your help I have some awesome original art for you! Many of you have been asking for online video training and I'm in the process of making that happen. As many of you know I started the High Sierra Art Academy in Reno this year, but that still leaves many people out who live far away or have schedules that won't permit them to attend, so I have decided to take all the content from my academy courses plus much more and put them into a first-rate, affordable and convenient membership web site. I have found a great team of people to work with to get the framework in place and the only thing I need is a bit more time and a bit more money! The time I can come up with easily, the money will be a little harder to come up with - but that's where you can help. I've started a crowdfunding project on indiegogo and if you can afford to contribute as little as $10, I have some great perks to offer you! And if you can't afford to contribute monitarily, you can still help by sharing my project with all of your art-loving friends via email, facebook and twitter! Please take a look at my project video and details found here:

igg.me/at/simpleapproachart

or by clicking the video below

I'm offering some of my original oil paintings as perks, so if you ever wanted to own an original of mine here's your chance to get one for WAY less than retail, but hurry, perks are given on a first pledge, first reward basis! Click the link or video above now!

Thank you sincerely,

Mike