"Khasra by Moonlight" is one of the original paintings in the exhibition "The Art of James Gurney" in Philadelphia.
 |
| Khasra by Moonlight by James Gurney, 12 x 18 inches, oil on board |
To evoke the feeling of moonlight, I used the following six strategies, which I based on my own personal memories of observing moonlight, and my study of other artists whose nocturnes I really admire (especially Frederic Remington, Atkinson Grimshaw, John Stobart, and Frank Tenney Johnson):
1. Set up an overall temperature contrast between the orange torchlight and the cool blue-green moonlight.
2. Keep the chroma in the moonlight low--not too intense of a blue-green. Hint of blue in far distance.
3. Put a slight warm halo around the moon and edge-light the adjacent clouds.
4. Keep the key of the painting relatively high.
5. Suppress all detail in the shadows and put some texture and variety in the lights.
6. Introduce a gradual stepping back of value, lightening as it goes back to the far minaret.
I quickly discovered that I had to move the actual lighting position quite far to the left, much farther to the left than the position of the moon in the painting.
After taking a digital photo of the maquette, in Photoshop I shifted the key toward blue-green, and I desaturated it slightly. The photo shows a lot of reflected light in the shadows, which I largely ignored. I would have played up that reflected light had I wanted to evoke daylight effects, where I might want to amplify the relatively weak reflected light.
-----
Resources
"The Art of James Gurney" at the Richard Hess Museum at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia will be on view through November 16, and I will do a public presentation on October 29.
"Khasra by Moonlight" was first published in Dinotopia: Journey to Chandara
There's a discussion of architectural maquettes in my print book Imaginative Realism: How to Paint What Doesn't Exist
and an exploration of moonlight in Color and Light: A Guide for the Realist Painter
and an exploration of moonlight in Color and Light: A Guide for the Realist PainterGurneyJourney YouTube channel
My Public Facebook page
GurneyJourney on Pinterest
JamesGurney Art on Instagram
@GurneyJourney on Twitter
My Public Facebook page
GurneyJourney on Pinterest
JamesGurney Art on Instagram
@GurneyJourney on Twitter
8 Comments on Gurney Journey: Strategies for Evoking Moonlight
--JG"
But the Moon isn't always there to light a scene. That's something I find fascinating - how to paint at night scene with the starry sky as the only light source (or maybe not even that).
One painter who really had to find a way to deal with that is Ken Marschall. He has painted numerous scenes of the sinking of the Titanic, which happened on a moonless night (and of the wreck that rests in complete darkness at the bottom of the ocean). It's quite interesting to study his paintings and think about where the (invented) light comes from and what value range he is using."
What types of lights do you use to shoot reference? I have two regular stand lights with diffuser umbrellas - but no "spot light" or "target light". Would it be good to have one? Do you use colored acetate ever?
I'd really love to see a blog post on how you shoot reference.
Thank you for sharing your knowledge with us :)"
--James G."