Carlson on Linear Perspective for Clouds

This diagram is on page 78 of Carlson's Guide to Landscape Painting (1958), by John F. Carlson.

He explains:
"If a mountain or hill should rise in our landscape in such as way as to obstruct our view of the horizon, the arching and receding sky (or clouds) would ignore this temporary "horizon" and proceed back to the real horizon (out of our vision, of course) at its own ratio of convergence. It is this continuance of the sky back of the mountains, with the clouds coming up over it (and following their own perspective), that helps to give a sense of height to the sky and the mountain in our picture, as shown in Diagram No. 22. Of course, we speak of "converging" lines in the sky in only a figurative sense. We can only feel these unseen lines." (Ibid., page 77)

Sky

This is about 7" x 4", begun with watercolors and finished with pastels, on paper

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See also: How to Paint Better Clouds, from Karen Margulis. Good stuff!

Sky

Richard McKinley Tips:
-- Blue Skies and Beyond | Painting the Sky with Pastel, Part 1 
-- Pastel Pointers for Painting Clouds | Painting the Sky with Pastel Part 2

Deborah Secor Tips:
-- Chapter Seven - The Sky 
-- Chapter Eight - Clouds

Loriann Signori: tips for painting clouds

I see sky - Maryland Pastel Society demo report
 

Thunderzoydosis

This is 9" x 12" on PastelMat paper, in the "Sand" color. I used about 75% panpastels and 25% my new Mount Vision Thunderstorm Greys set, which is way cool. And I also used one very scratchy, very impasto, very lush DT Thin Line white stick, for the hard cloud edges.

I am not too sure about the way the clouds overlap, lower to higher --- I think it's the other way around --- but what the heck.

I see sky

Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending a meeting of the Maryland Pastel Society! It consisted of four simultaneous demos, one going on in each corner of a big assembly room, where each demo/teacher spent a half an hour or so on her topic. The audience rotated at will among sessions.

The four topics were intended to get the membership ready for plein air work:

• the sky and clouds
• verticals (trees and hills)
• the land
• water

The pic on the right, above, is from the sky/clouds demo given by the group's president, Jean Hirons. She had a piece of paper divided into quarters (as you see) and did each of her demos on one of the panels. The one I watched was done on the third panel from the left and the sky treatment differed considerably from the other two! It was fun to compare and contrast as she painted. Important tip: the sky should echo the ground in temp/color/tint. This ties the piece together.

The verticals demo was done by Lisa Sheppard. I very much enjoyed watching how she built her value masses, based on the angle from which each mass was lit. And then she brought them to life with just a few additional strokes.

The land demo was done by Mary Anne Warner, a 'realist' painter of large skill, who (unfortunately for her, here in this locale) hates green!

The water demo was seriously instructional, based upon the correct premise that the more you know about a thing, the better you'll paint it. It was presented by Deborah Maklowski. (Another excellent How-To-Paint-Water in pastels demo is here.)

Two books were mentioned reverently by more than one presenter:
--- Carlson's Guide to Landscape Painting, by John Carlson (1958)
--- Capturing Light & Color With Pastel, by Doug Dawson (1991)
From what I saw, the Carlson book looks pretty interesting. We'll see. It's on the way!


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ADDENDUM: On the way home I discovered an outstanding little grocery market in Olney (west side of Georgia Avenue): Roots Market. Great spot! Really good stuff. Decent prices. A little Dean+Deluca and a little Whole Foods. I intend to go back often. Wish there was one closer!