Sunset

 

Javid's Sunset
Watercolour on Paper
12cm x 16.5cm (4.75" x 6.5")

Sunset is the sixth topic in the Skies and Weather chapter of Creating Textures in Pen & Ink with Watercolor by Claudia Nice.

Once again I cross referenced Claudia’s advice with a section in James Gurney’s Color and Light (A Guide for the Realist Painter). I also watched a YouTube video about painting sunsets by Javid Tabatabaei - How to paint sunset and landscape in watercolor. The picture at the top of the post is my version of Javid’s painting. I watched his video in short segments in one room and ran in to another to work on my painting. Elaine asked me to turn off the sound. If you watch the video, you will understand why.

West Pier Sunset
Watercolour on Paper
12cm x 16.5cm (4.75" x 6.5")

This is a view of the approach to the ruined West Pier in Brighton from some photos I took in 2007. I sent the best part of a year working in Brighton – I’ve had worse jobs.

Porth Mellon Sunset
Watercolour on Paper
12cm x 16.5cm (4.75" x 6.5")

This is a view from Porth Mellon beach on St Marys (Isles of Scilly) from some photos I took in 2014. Elaine and I were walking to Juliet’s Garden for dinner.

Drawing and Painting the Landscape - The Divine Proportion

Divine Mousehole Harbour

Lesson 30 of  Drawing and Painting the Landscape by Philip Tyler is about the Divine Proportion – probably the most aesthetically beautiful division of a line in the world. 

The Divine Proportion has many pseudonyms: the golden ratio, the golden section, the golden mean, the golden proportion, the golden cut, the golden number, the divine section, phi, etc, etc. 

If you want to learn more, Wikipedia has an article  (see Golden ratio).

Philip defines the divine proportion:

It is the division of a line into two parts, where the small part relates to the bigger as the bigger part relates to the whole.

This is what it looks like - and some equations for good measure

The Divine Proportion

Philip explains how to draw a golden rectangle (a rectangle with side lengths in the golden ratio) by starting off with a square and adding on a rectangle - using a ruler, setsquare and compass.

Drawing a Golden Rectangle

The interesting thing is, the rectangle we add on is also a golden rectangle because golden rectangles exhibit a form of self-similarity.

If we start off with a golden rectangle, and add a square to its long side, we end up with another golden rectangle

Another Golden Rectangle

Add another square to its long side, we end up with another golden rectangle

And Another

And so, on

Golden Spiral (Approximate)

Look familiar? (see Drawing and Painting the Landscape - What is the proportion of the rectangle?)

Philip suggests analysing some of your favourite landscapes to see if key parts of the composition conform to the divine proportion.

I studied quite a few pictures - new and old. I didn’t find a lot of correlations. One of the panels was almost a golden rectangle. 

The Beach at Trouville (with a Golden Rectangle)
Eugène Boudin
From Wikimedia Commons

The placement of the sun in Monet's "Impression, Sunrise" divides both the horizontal and vertical almost perfectly by their divine proportion.

Impression, Sunrise (with a Phi Grid)
Claude Monet
From Wikimedia Commons

That was about it. This analysis of historic paintings didn’t convince me that the great artists made/make use of the divine proportion, but as an exercise I applied it to a photo I am using as the source for a painting. 

Mousehole Harbour

I thought the composition of the photo was pretty good – lose some of the boats close to the left-hand side – job done. I investigated a lot of different crops using a phi grid to apply the divine proportion. Zooming in, aligning the strong horizontal under the buildings with the upper divine proportion and the major boats with the left-hand divine proportion gives (for me) a more pleasing composition (see the photo at the top of the post). I will emphasise these alignments some more in my preparatory sketches.