Painting for Fun

As artists, we sometimes feel as though every work that we produce must meet certain standards. We place pressures on ourselves to create a masterpiece in every painting we start. I usually spend a lot of time preparing for a painting by doing sketches and studying photographs for key elements. But sometimes it’s fun just to paint without all the preparation.

Today I decided just to paint for fun. I stretched a canvas and mixed up a color that consisted of ultramarine blue, ivory black, and titanium white. This gave me a nice cool shade of gray, slightly on the blue side of the spectrum. I painted the entire canvas with this color from top to bottom.

Canvas covered with a cool gray color

I then mixed ultramarine blue and titanium white together to achieve a pale blue tone. I painted in just faint hints of blue scattered around the canvas to give the hint that sky was peaking from behind a gray cloud covered skyscape.

Canvas with just a hint of sky showing

Next I mixed a little more titanium white with the original gray color and scrubbed in the hint of highlights for some large cloud formations. I decided next where I wanted my horizon line and drew a horizontal line across the canvas at that point.

Clouds highlighted

I added just a little more ivory black to my sky color and faintly painted in the hint of some trees at the horizon line.

Trees at the horizon

In just a few minutes, I had created the beginnings of what looked like a cloudy day with gray haze in the distance. An best of all it was fun! I have decided to complete the painting using an L shaped composition where the main vertical and horizontal elements lay at the one-third planes.

I’ll continue working on this painting and let you know how it comes out when I’m done. Until next time, keep your brushes clean, you colors pure, and as always, thanks for stopping by the North Forty.

Regards,

Thank you.