by Harold Sink

Created on: January 05, 2010

Art Lessons in Acrylic: Night Sky

 Throughout the ages mankind has looked up at the night sky and wondered, “Are we the only ones out here?”  Nevertheless, we all have marveled at how awesome the night sky looks with all the stars and planets displayed for us to see.  When the moon is out it makes the night sky that much more awe-inspiring.  Many artists have tried to capture the night sky in many different ways to capture its beauty.  You, too, can learn to paint the night sky with acrylic paints.

 The first step in your night sky acrylic painting is to decide if you are going to paint on a canvas, board or paper of some sort.  Granted the latter should be canvas paper unless you have some outlandish idea of how to use some other kind.  The second step is to decide upon how small or large you want the painting.  A typical size for a beginner is 16” x 20”, which is a good size to work with.

 The next step to take is to gather up the paints and brushes to use for the painting along with a palette and maybe a palette knife.  Oddly enough you may not need black unless you feel it is absolutely necessary.  A very dark blue mixed with a dark orange will give you a blackish color, not gray.  Light blues and whites will be needed for highlights, and cadmium yellow is good for reflective light in trees and other objects.

 Start by using gesso to prime your material if it has not been primed yet.  Let that dry before you begin drawing out your picture.  Use a 6H lead pencil to draw with, as this is a hard lead and will not smear very easily on your area to be painted.

 Don’t know what to draw?  You could draw a scene with a horizon as most artist would, or you could draw just the sky showing the tops of trees or buildings off the sides.  You may have that wonderful picture you took of the night sky and want to put in the constellations you captured.  That could have a small outcrop of hills or mountains here and there in the painting.

 Maybe you should spend time drawing your ideas on paper before you finalize your sketch for the painting.  Let us say that you chose the upward look to the sky with a few trees off to the side.  Begin by painting in the darkest color for the sky around the edges.  While you bring the color into the center of the canvas, start gradually lightening the color just a little bit.  Go ahead and put your stars in with a small tip brush such as a 0/10 or 0/20.  You could even use a toothpick if you want.

 Should you put the moon in remember to lighten up the sky around it and out a little ways to show that it is not just hung up in the sky.  Paint in the trees with Vandyke brown mixed with some black to darken them up.  You could use a dark blue to give them an eerie presence.  Remember to catch the light of the moon from the direction it hits the trees.  Try not to go overboard with highlighting.  The leaves can be a viridian green mixed with black or alizarin red.  Use a color chart to help you get the color you are trying to come up with.

 Unless you want to add much more you are pretty much done.  Some yellow highlights on the leaves will make this painting stand out even more.  The last thing you will need to do is to sign your painting wherever you want to.  That is it, and you are done.  Well…let it dry and put some type of sealer over it to keep it from aging.

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