Xmas cards? - Northern lights

 Tackling a new subject: Northern lights

After seeing aurora all over the internet, I decided that it would make the perfect subject for Xmas cards :) However, I had never seen or painted Northern lights so... it was quite a challenge.

I only have a scan of the final stage here, so if you want to see all the "ugly phases" in-between, you can check this Youtube video where I walk you through the process.

Step 1: Understanding the subject

Before diving into the watercolor, I needed to study a bit the subject. I went on internet to look out pictures of aurora. I also looked at other artists who painted them, to see how they approached the subject: what colors they used, was techniques they used, etc. It's always a evry interesting process, but I admit that this time I have a bit overlooked it dived quite quickly into dabbling ;)

Step 2: Dabbling

This is my favorite step! You take all your creativity and dive into the paper... 

Thumbnails - playing with colors

First, I took my homemade watercolor sketchbook (with 100 % cellulose watercolor paper), and did some very small thumbnails. I used a flat, size 8 brush. I knew I wanted to do wet-on-wet, and from what I saw from other artists, starting with the Northern lights and then adding the dark sky seemed like a good idea. I saw that the usual colors seemed to be yellow, green, and a bit of pinkish red. However, I still needed to figure out which colors from my palette I wanted to use, and what composition I was going for. 

On my first thumbnail (top-right corner), I just played with colors, without thinking much about composition. I wanted a very bright green, and a sharp contrast with a dark sky. I ended up liking very much the colors (cad yellow hue, emerald green and a tiny bit of permanent rose for the Northern lights / a mix of indigo, dioxazine violet and Payne's gray for the dark sky). 

On the second and third thumbnails, I played a little bit more with the composition. I wanted to have a sort of frozen lake, where the Northern lights could be reflected. I was not completely sure about the background: village / mountains / forests... I also tried to use some fineliners on top of the watercolors to add some elements. I gave almost a "cartoony" effect that I liked, and that I ended up using on the following pieces.

Moving on - experimenting on better paper

A few months ago, I would have been very afraid to experiment with my 100 % cotton paper. But in the last months, I realized that the 100 % cellulose paper reacts very differently from the 100 % cotton one (every artist said so, but I think I was not aware enough to completely feel the difference. I found that you could layer more on the 100 % cotton paper, and that the paint did not flow that much, but I did not realize all the difference it made). So, even if you try and try again on the 100 % cellulose, it cannot replace experimenting on the 100 % cotton one. 

First layer - learning water control... or not!

I started with the top one. First, I put some clean water on the paper with my size 12 Cotman round brush, and started with a wet-on-wet technique with a size 6 round brush the DaVinci one). I was hoping the colors would flow more... but water control is tricky! And I think I went for slighly heavier pigments than I thought (opaque or semi-opaque colors), so at first I did not see them flow as I hoped they would. I started with the yellow, then the green. As nothing was flowing the way I hoped, I grabbed a clean flat (size 8, DaVinci) brush and tried to add som effects with it, by pushing the paint upwards. Then, I put my pinkish tone on the paper with a bit more water. To create the dark sky, I used the same mix of colors. I realized that the paper was not damp enough, as I was getting some dry brush effect... First I thought that the paper showing through could create the stars... but... not really! For the reflected part, I used some very diluted version of the sky colors. I think it's the part that turned out the best!

With this first - slightly disappointing - layer, I went quite crazy adding some more water on the edges of the Northern lights to "break" the hard edges, adding some more watered down colors and trying to make the them flow... I also tilted the paper to create some nice flowing effects. Of course, I put way to much water, and not everywhere... It ended up creating some blooming effects and some hard edges. At this point in the process, I was kind of frustrated, and I ended up trying to make another smaller one at the bottom.

For the second test (the bottom-right), I also started wet-on-wet, but with more water. I think I went a little bit overboard with the water, but it did flow more! I used the same colors, but then ended up looking rather pale as they were more watered down than I wanted too. Once all the colors were down on the paper, I also went again with some of the bright green and tilted the paper, while also pushing a little bit the paint with a flat clean brush, to add some of that glowing effect so specific to aurora. 

Second layer - working around the experiments...

While letting the second painting to dry, I decided to try to add another layer to the first sky. I put a thin layer of clean water, while trying my best not to disturb the underneath layer. For this, I used one of my softer brushes, a DaVinci size 8 flat brush. I then tried to "fix" some of the blooming by adding some more dark color on top. The colors started to get very dirty, so I attempted to add some more clean and vibrant colors on the Northern Lights and let them flow by tilting the paper again.

While this one was drying, I darkened the sky of the second painting. It worked quite well, as the paper was still a little bit damp and I could avoid most of the hard edges. I then worked on the reflection of this painting, by using again a watered down version of the sky colors.

Third layer - details & overworking the thing?

After this second layer, I decided to continue adding some more details and trying out new techniques to render these Northern lights.

On the first painting, I added the mountains, and then decided to fix the sky. As I had put way to much water, some blooming had appeared everywhere on the sky and made the sky color lighter in some places. I went over all of the sky with a more pigmented version of the mix. To try to keep some soft egdes, I used a clean damp brush to go over these edges and blend them a bit with the colors. Then, I had tried again to add more color (especially green) to the Northern lights, and to change a bit their shape. I wanted the center to be focused, and then the lights to spread out and become wider. I also added some touches of colors elsewhere on the sky. All of this participated in "mudding" the colors, but I think it alos gave more of a realistic look compared to the evry bright colors used on the other paintings.

On the second painting, I added bigger mountains, which gave a very different composition. I liked how the green light was showing through the mountains a bit. To help with the perspective, I darkened the mountain in the foreground and also added some mountain reflection on the frozen lake. As this one was looking less realistic than the first one, I decided to push this vibe and add some pine trees in the foreground with finelines. I used a Faber-Castell brush pen. I very much enjoy the combination of watercolors and fineliners! I enjoed it so much that I thought it would be great to cover some of the weaker parts of the first painting. I added some birds with a Faber-Castell 0.5 fineliner here and there, where the sky was not turning out as expected!

The last step of working on those paintings was to try something crazy! I actually used some poor-quality gouache (more liquidy and transparent than good quality ones) and added some glowing effect. I used a dry brush, slightly stiffer than my usual brushes (the Daler-Rowney, size 8, flat brush), and worked with a vertical movement to give this glowing/moving effect. I used all of the colors of the Northern lights (the closest equivalent I could find in my gouache set), and it created a very cool effect (even if I went quite overboard here again). I even added some after removing the tape, so my edges are not that clean.

In some parts, I used the watercolor with a tiny bit of white gouache to make it more opaque, and used it to reshape some of the Northern lights and add some more light to other parts. I also added a tiny bit of blue to the top painting, as I felt it could add some interesting change in the overall mood.

                                                                                                                                                     Last try - using all the lessons learnt

I decided to make one last painting using all the things I had learnt from the other. Again, I watered down my paper quite heavily, and created the first layer wet-on-wet. I used the same colors as for the first two paintings. I directly added the frozen lake and reflections. I used a similar composition to the one of the second painting, as I thought it worked better for such a small format. Once the first layer was dry, I added the glowing effect with gouache. After that, I created the mountains. Here again, I worked in multiple layers to push the perspective. 

This last painting was way faster to work on compared to the other two. There was much I could have done differently there also, but it was nice to end-up on a smoother process!  

Northern lights in mixed media. 1) top one; 2) bottom-right; 3) bottom-left.

Learnings

I think all three "final" pieces have some flaws and good points. They are in different styles and I learnt a lot by doing them. Next time, I will probably choose different colors (these ones ended up being a bit too dramatic), and play with the "dry" brush effect on a more controled manner. I think I also need to watch more pictures of real Northern lights, to better understand their structure. I always find the planning phase a bit boring, but once I have tried a subject for myself a first time, I find it easier to go back to this planning process.

The last one may not be the more successful, but it was the one with the smoother process. So I can always come back to this process and improve by adding all the things that worked better on the others. I really like this process of leaning by doing mistakes: you jump into it, it does not turn out as you expect, and you try to find ways around. When you find something that seems more successful, you use it on another piece, and here again you make mistakes and work your way around them.

Also, what you think of a piece, or what effect / atmosphere you are trying to achieve may change quite drastically in the future. When I did those, I thought the two small ones were the best, as I was working with a "Christmas card" idea. I wanted to edit the painting digitally and turn them into cards. However, to create a bigger, refined piece, I think the first one would be a better base to work on. The muddied colors give more of a nuanced look, and with hindsight, it turned out to be the most interesting to look out. On the small ones, especially the last one, the green color is too vibrant and looks more cartoony. 

All in all, keeping notes (or blogposts), videos, unfinished pieces and studies are a very great way to learn more about different subjects and improve. You are able to reflect on what you did, what worked out, what you were trying to achieve, and do better next time!