Art Lesson: Blue Skies, Blue Mountains, Blue Grass.

Have you looked up and noticed the blue sky lately?

Did you know that if we did not have the atmosphere that we do on earth, the sky would be black like it is on the moon?  How sad that would be.  Of course, we could not live without our atmosphere, but the blue sky does make it even nicer considering all the colors it could have been.

I love blue skies!

The way that light travels and hits the atmosphere of the earth causes the colors of light to separate in such a way that the blue rays that make light are what we see,

making the sky blue.

Notice how the blue seems darker higher up in the sky whereas on the horizon, it is lighter.

The atmosphere that we have also creates a bluish color in the distance.

I went out into the pasture to try to capture some pictures to demonstrate this.

I opened up and let more light into my camera lens for this shot to try to make it easier to see the bluish tint we see in far-away landscapes.

This is called atmospheric perspective.

 Also notice that often the grass that is nearest to us is brighter and more distinct.

 As we look further back into the distance, the shade of the grass color takes on a slightly darker color made by a slightly bluish tint (the droplets and light in the air, atmosphere, contribute to this).  This bluish shade can really be seen when we look at the shadow of the trees on that far hill.

Of course, the way the sun is shining and where it is hitting when we look also can decide how bright what we are looking at will be and where the shadows will fall.

Notice the picture below is the same picture as the one above but just up a slight distance:

the sun here is behind the treeline,

making the grass have a darker shade than the grass in the distance that is highlighted by the sun.

There is much to keep in mind when painting a picture, isn't there?

It is what makes the world so beautiful and full of liveliness:

the many colors, hues, and shades.

As I am still working on some coloring/teaching pages for the Ten Commandments, I thought I would use this lesson to color one of the pages with my Copic markers.

 I used a light yellow green to start.

 This was followed by more greens.

I find I use the most variety in the greens.

For the sand, I started with a skin white...

 followed by light suntan on the sand 

and dark suntan and sepia on the tree trunks.

 I started with the yellow to the tips of some of the tree's leaves,

 with more greens in the areas where the marker caps are placed,

and a warm gray for some shading,

 Some darker browns and a darker gray finished the tree trunk,

and some neutral gray on the sandy banks edging and rocks.

Pale moss was used again to double up some layers.

 A darker shade, Moss, was used for the first hill in the background.

a darker brown Caribe Cocoa on the sand banks,

and Pea Green for shading in/around the grasses.

 More greens for shading and variety.

 Finally, for the mountains in the background, I chose Ice Ocean, a light bluish green

and Blue Berry, a light bluish purple.

More shading and darkening of areas near the marker caps, using those colors.

 Shading on the mountains as well as a second layer of Ice Ocean to deepen it.

 The colors from the mountains were then randomly squiggled in the stream.

 I used a bright Tahitian Blue to squiggle in some cloud edges, Pale Porcelain Blue stretched out beside them,

and a touch of a light neutral gray in the clouds.

The blender pen helped wash away the hard lines.

The grass looked too flat to me,

so I added a final touch of some greens to stipple in some grass,

and then the blender pen helped blend everything the way I felt was needed.

I love the blender pen.

I am enjoying experimenting with my Copic markers,

but am always amazed at how many colors cannot even begin to compare to the beauty

of God's world.

I hope you can go out for a pleasant walk soon and notice the colors.  If you think of it, see if you can see the bluish tint in the distant view.

Thank you for stopping by!

(I am sorry that I never posted a craft this past weekend.  I had a root canal that got infected and was well-nigh worthless to anything but a hot water bottle and the couch until it was fixed.)


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