Description

Sunset Along The Ridge – A New Oil Painting Lesson
If you’ve ever climbed a mountain and looked over the neighboring mountain tops you’ll get the sense that you can see forever. You’ll see ridges that carry you into the horizon where the rest of the mountain tops sit, just beneath or amongst the clouds. In this oil painting lesson I wanted to capture that feeling during a brilliant sunset. The sun, turning everything orange, and the sky lit up with the most glorious colors.

Come paint this painting with me. Learn how to create this work of art from start to finish. This lesson isn’t too advanced, so anyone can learn and pick up new techniques

Colors Used: Cadmium Yellow Medium, Cadmium Orange, Alizarin Crimson, Flake White, Ultramarine Blue
Canvas Size: 16 X 20

Sunset Painting Tips
1. Making the sun bright can be a tricky thing to do. The biggest thing to focus on is value. Make the colors in the sky a midtone rather than on the bright level. Then when you add in bright colors for the sun and build it to white it’ll appear much brighter.

2. Pick warm or cool. There can be warm sunsets and cool sunsets. I suggest picking a temperature and sticking with it. I always base my temperature on the yellows. If I want a cooler sunset on a windy brisk winter day I’ll go with lemon yellow, if I want a warm intense sunset I’ll go with cadmium yellow medium. I’ll use those colors as the base and use them in most of my mixtures throughout, which will either cool down or warm each mixture up.

3. Use teals for sky color. Sunsets usually have either a teal color for the blue or a blue gray. Try to avoid any really bold blues and lean more toward the teal side fo things. This will harmonize much better than other blues like cobalt or ultramarine.