Sta.sh
A friend of mine in Anchorage was sitting in her shop one day, when she noticed an intense change in the light through the window. Dropping her sandwich, she ran outside and took the picture which I'm using as the source for this painting.
I initially began by sketching out compositions, as I did not want to use the exact composition of the photograph (I didn't want the signs and industrial aspects, rather desiring to put this completely in nature, although keeping the intention of the road leading into and through the picture).
Having gone through several iterations on my sketch pad, I finally wanted to get something in paint. The first attempt showed several problems. The composition was far to foreground heavy. The main thing about the picture is the *SKY* and the tree in the middle and on the right were far too prominent. The sky, as a underpainting I think started out okay, but I should have built it up quite a bit before putting in the trees and the road. As it was, I had to abandon that one.
I worked on scrap pieces trying to get decent colours for the sky, and work on blending and such. I thought I had something worked out, but when I got around to attempt #3, nothing was working right. The sky became to muddy, and not the glowy thing in the source picture. I abandoned that attempt as well.
Back to the small squares, further work. Finally in attempt #5, I think I may have found the trick: laying down an underlayer of aeriolin yellow wet on wet in just a few spots where I want the sky to glow, let it dry, then glazing on some red-orange and violet in separate areas, gradually building it up. The result of that is in the lower right corner of Alaska Sunlight - Fifth Attempt.
The value study I did for this was just in pencil, rather than paint. The value study I think is a pretty invaluable step in getting the feel for the painting. Still, on this one, it's the sky, all the sky.
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