Painters of the Night

Ok, ok, so maybe "painters of the night" gives the wrong impression here but a friend and I went out and painted a nocturne plein air.  We drove to our "old town" area at dusk, donned our backpacks and set out to find something we had a shot of painting in the dark.  It was chilly out so we had our heavy, paint-smeared coats on, grungy pants, etc...honestly, we looked like a couple of homeless guys.

Photo courtesy of Will Spear

We found a nice window display at the florist and set up to paint.  My friend, Will, has painted a few nocturnes before so I followed his lead.  I wasn't really sure where to start but turns out it's like any other painting; you start putting down shapes of the right value and color.  The hardest part was discerning the color/temp of dark mixtures on my palette when my main light source was an LED head lamp.

Paul Wood Florist
6"x6" Oil on linen - Not for sale

 This painting took me twice as long as it should have but once I got in the groove there was no way I was leaving until it was done.  I had a blast and now I'm hooked.

Got any tips for painting nocturnes?  Leave a comment!