Neighbouring Houses in Moonlight – Black ink on a watercolour Moleskine
This was the scene, from our bedroom window at 4.00am this morning. (Don’t ask – you will be sixty sometime yourself). The neighbouring houses were bathed in bright moonlight giving the whole place a rather “Lunar Perspective”. It was incredibly bright due to the full moon.
This is a painting study reproducing the lovely work from a...
vantazy 8:21 pm on January 13, 2009 | #
I really like this. Is there a little color in there too?
trebor61 2:48 am on January 14, 2009 | #
Thank you, vantazy, for taking the trouble to comment on this. I’m glad you like it. You are correct when you say that there is some colour in there. If you look back to sjguild’s post on October 16, 2008 and read all the comments you will see why my sky has dissolved into different hues. The sky was done first with cheap black ink then the trees were added with Indian Ink after some of the branches were masked out. Most of the drawing was done by dropping the ink onto a wet surface. Watch out though! The cheaper ink can smudge when re-wetted while the Indian Ink is permanent. All of these ideas are posted in the “forums” section in this case, under the heading “sharing techniques with others”. Thanks again.
roseindigo 1:42 pm on January 14, 2009 | #
What a gorgeous piece! Incredible moonlight sky!
trebor61 2:17 pm on January 14, 2009 | #
Nice of you to comment roseindigo. I have seen this type of sky a few times in my life but not lately. Most cities and towns seem to have too much light pollution which spoils things for star/sky gazers. When I was a wee boy, in the 1950,s we used to take our pet dog for a walk on moonlit nights. It was like this and last night’s scenery brought back happy memories. The trick seems to be to pick a cold, clear night with a full moon overhead.
Margie 8:49 pm on January 15, 2009 | #
wow – this is extraordinary! One of your most exquisite yet!
I really like how you masked out the tree limbs so they would be the darkest dark and the whitest white.
trebor61 5:54 am on January 17, 2009 | #
My apologies for not replying sooner. Its nice of you to offer such positive feedback, Margie, and I very much appreciate this. At your suggestion, to work on contrast etc I very much had you in mind when I did this scene. Some years ago I was asked to demontrate, to s small art class, how to add value by using contrast. I used the white sails of a boat set against a foreboding sky. I suppose these branches are much the same idea. I looked at a video recently, in which you appeared, where you had colour samples in, I think, tubes. You selected a range of “tubes” for your next piece of jewellery. Prompted by this I drew examples of all of the Inktense colours and now can pick a range when attempting something. A further thank you for the idea.
Margie 11:11 am on January 21, 2009 | #
I am so glad you found value in my video (pun intended!) Thank you for watching. I, too, make reference charts for all my colors in whatever form: pencil, acrylic, oil, ink. It save me so much time to have them all laid out in front of me.
I finally took the plunge, Bob… and bought myself a set of Inktense (24 colors and a small FREE sketchbook). And WOW – they are mega-bright! Even I was shocked. They do pose challenges! I’ve been having fun with them in other sketchbooks… not ready to get them near my Moleskines yet! i’ll let you know when I do.
trebor61 2:50 pm on January 21, 2009 | #
Margie, I’m looking forward to seeing how to use these things properly. Good luck with them – they have just about defeated me.