How to Make a Fog Effect With Traditional Art

In this mail service, I provide you with some guidance on how to paint mist, fog, fume, and other transient effects. These effects are typically challenging to capture on a flat surface due to their elusive and fleeting nature. Many artists seem to be either too timid with their approach, or too bold.

I cover the following areas:

• Shape, Form, and Movement
• Observe and Identify Colors
• Technique Selection
• Other Master Painting Examples
• Cardinal Takeaways

I use my recent painting, New Zealand Reflections (shown below) along with several others by the masters to demonstrate fundamental points.

Dan Scott, New Zealand Reflections, 2019

You lot should approach transient effects just similar y'all would any other subject—await for basic shapes, forms, and movements. This is the main challenge of painting transient effects due to their fleeting and elusive nature. The shapes, forms, and movements will usually exist hazy and indistinct, but they are there!

Enquire yourself:

• If you had to draw an outline around the transient effect, what would that shape look like?
• Tin can you make out whatsoever geometric shapes (circles, triangles, squares)? These tend to be easier to measure out and depict compared to irregular organic shapes.
• Is in that location a sense of iii-dimensionality to the effect, or does it announced flat? Sometimes, the outcome will accept enough substance for you to make out different low-cal and dark planes.
• What is the general sense of motion? Information technology is going upward? Downwards? To the right? To the left? Swirling? Still?

I volition prove yous what I mean using myNew Zealand Reflections as an case. Below is the reference photo I painted from and a shut-up of the mist sitting on the calm water:

New Zealand Reference Photo

The mist forms an organic shape which I take outlined below:

I can pause this organic shape down into smaller, circular shapes that represent clusters of the mist. These shapes are weak and inappreciably distinguishable, just they are important to go along in mind as they help determine the kind of brushwork I use.

In terms of motion, the environment is very still. So much then that the water appears almost like a mirror reflection of the g mountains in the distance. To capture that stillness in the painting, I avoided the use of whatsoever strong, directional brushwork.

I will run through another instance using the stunning painting by Abram Arkhipov beneath namedLaundress:

Abram Arkhipov, Laundress, 1890

Here are some primal observations regarding the steam which fills the room:

• His use of painterly brushwork, thick paint, and solid color gives substance to the hot steam.
• The edges of the steam are soft, merely you tin can still brand out the general shape of it.
• Notice how the steam forms a crude, diagonal line. This gives a feel of upwards movement. By way of comparison, think nigh what the sense of motility would look similar if the steam formed a horizontal line.

Mistakes in terms of color tend to stand up out when painting transient effects. My best recommendation is to retrieve in terms of color relationships, rather than absolute colors. By color relationships, I mean how lite, dark, saturated, weak, blueish, red or yellow the colour is compared to its environs.

So, going back to the New Zealand reference photo, I can encounter the following colour relationships between the mist and the surrounding colors:

• The mist is much lighter than the surrounding colors.
• The mist is much less saturated than the surrounding colors.
• The mist is a bear upon warmer in colour temperature than the surrounding colors.

When I was mixing the color for the mist, I was thinking nearly these relationships.

The culling would exist to await at the color in the reference photo, determine exactly what colour it is, and replicate that colour in my painting. The problem with this approach is that it assumes the surrounding colors are the same in my painting. If they are not, and so fifty-fifty if I mix the colour exactly equally information technology is in the reference photograph, it will look wrong in the context of my painting.

The color I concluded up using in the painting was a very light and slightly warm gray. Yet, looking dorsum now the colour seems to exist too cool, which is a slight mistake.

Dan Scott, New Zealand Reflections, 2019

A colour pitfall you demand to be aware of is overusing white. We tend to associate mist, fog, and smoke every bit having a white advent and this can interfere with our perception of color. Most of the fourth dimension, you lot will find that light grays and other weak tones should be used for transient effects and pure white should be left for merely the brightest of highlights, if at all.

In John Singer Sargent'sYoho Falls, the hazy spray of water is depicted with varying warm and cool grays. Even the lightest parts seem to have a touch of color in there.

John Vocalist Sargent, Yoho Falls, 1916

(If you want to larn more than about color, you might be interested in my Painting Academy course.)

Your technique option and implimentation is critical. Get it wrong, and your transient event will announced out of place.

When I was paintingNew Zealand Reflections, I waited until the very end of the painting earlier I laid down the mist on the burnished water. Beneath is a progress shot of the painting earlier starting the mist. Notice how I blocked in the general colors as if the mist did not exist, rather than just leaving the area blank. This gave me the option to leave some of these colors exposed to capture the translucent nature of the mist.

Painting the mist this way presented a few challenges:

• If I painted the mist wrong, it would stand out and probably ruin the painting. The prominent position and lightness of the mist make information technology a key point of interest in the painting.
• Mistakes would bevery difficult to prepare at this tardily phase of the painting. I could not simply wipe it down and get-go once more. I either needed to get it mostly right the first fourth dimension, or it was bosom.
• The painting was 95% complete by the time I went to pigment the mist. In that location was a run a risk I would play it too safe and paint timid in gild to preserve the work I had already done. Simply call up, most of the smashing paintings we admire were not the result of playing it safe.
• The colors in my painting are slightly lighter and less saturated than the reference photo (I do not care for reproducing the photo exactly).That ways, if I painted the color of the mist exactly as it is in the reference photograph, it would expect out of identify in my painting. Instead, I needed to capture the color relationships, which I discussed earlier in this postal service (nether Observe and Identify Colors).

To pigment the mist, I outset let the painting dry for a 24-hour interval. Then I used a dry out brush to gently scumble color across the surface. Doing this allows some of the base of operations colors underneath to remain exposed and give a sense of the mist'southward translucent nature.

I started by applying a few test strokes of low-cal gray to see how well it fitted with the rest of the painting without committing to anything serious on the canvass. Once I was satisfied with the direction, I gradually committed to information technology.

I worked slowly through this process, as overdoing it would be a critical error. Also much colour and paint would make the mist appear solid and defective that transient feel.

Below are some other chief painting examples of how to paint transient effects, starting with the appropriately namedFog, Voisins, by Alfred Sisley. It is not the about cheerful painting, simply it certainly gives a sense of dense fog that fills the air.

Alfred Sisley, Fog, Voisins, 1874

In Wanderer Above the Body of water of Fog, in that location is a powerful contrast between the dark, rigid, and imposing rocks in the foreground and the soft sea of fog.

Caspar David Friedrich, Wanderer Above the Bounding main of Fog, 1818

Below is more of an ambient brandish of fog. The edges are soft, the colors are muted, and there is a general haze across the whole painting.

Edward Pottast, Fog

Frederic Church depicts not only the soft haze of h2o spray from Niagara Falls, simply also a fleeting rainbow in the lesser right-hand corner. Detect how Church building'southward brushwork follows a rough, circular pattern, creating a sense of movement and drama. The rainbow is subtle and if I had to gauge, I would say he used thin glazes of color over a dry foundation.

Frederic Edwin Church, Niagara Falls from the American Side, 1867

I could write a whole separate post about all the different studies of fog, mist, and transient furnishings by Claude Monet. He frequently painted the same field of study over and over once more under varying conditions to examine the changing of light and atmosphere. Beneath are just some of his paintings which feature misty and foggy weather, starting with Homes in Falaise in the Fog. Without the vague depiction of the firm, this would look more than similar a modern-24-hour interval abstruse piece.

Claude Monet, Homes of Falaise in the Fog, 1885

In his painting beneath of the Seine, Monet depicts the strong, warm calorie-free from the sunrise coming through the hazy mist on the water. The warm light appears diffused by the mist, but y'all nevertheless get a sense of its intensity.

Claude Monet, Misty Forenoon on the Seine, Sunrise, 1897

In Monet's painting below, you lot can only just make out the Palace of Westminster through the thick fog. Observe the subtle lights and utilise of saturated blue around the lesser of the Palace.

Claude Monet, The Palace of Westminster, The Fog Effect, 1903

Waterloo Bridge was a popular subject for Monet. In his painting below, he used varying blue and purple tones to draw the boats going under the bridge. There is also just a hint of the buildings in the altitude, adding a sense of depth and perspective to the painting.

Claude Monet, Waterloo Bridge, Fog Effect, 1903

Here are some of the fundamental takeaways from this post for painting transient effects:

• Arroyo transient furnishings similar you would whatever other subject field—break information technology down into basic shapes, forms, and movements.
• Transient effects are often fabricated up of translucent, reflected, and local colors. So make sure y'all vary your use of colour as needed.
• Transient effects need to appear transient, not rigid and solid.
• Exist careful not to overuse white. We tend to associate mist, fog, and smoke with the colour white and this can interfere with our color perception. Attempt to come across color objectively.
• Think about color relationships, non accented colors.
• Develop a strategy before yous offset painting the transient furnishings. Information technology is non something you should guess your way through.

J.1000.Due west Turner, Snow Storm. Hannibal with His Regular army Crossing the Alps, 1812

Thanks for Reading!

Thanks for taking the time to read this post. I appreciate it! Feel free to share with friends. If you lot want more than painting tips, cheque out my Painting University course.

Happy painting!

Dan Scott

Describe Paint University

lauderdalenatithem.blogspot.com

Source: https://drawpaintacademy.com/transient-effects/

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