Down by the Marshall Point Lighthouse seemed to be the place where most of that went on. It was pretty dark and not many street lights, but well lit by moonlight. That made the light pretty nice.
I have been wanting to try a nocturne painting for a long time, so I was psyched that the others were up for it too.
I had a clip on book light that I attached to my Open Box. Eric Merrell had a great idea where he taped some wax paper over his book light to diffuse the light a bit. I just put a piece of paper towel on mine and it did the same thing.
I was surprised how well I could judge the colors with just that little light that was shining on both the painting and palette.
I pre mixed all of my colors on my palette first to compare and adjust them to each other. Then I put them on the panel pretty quickly.
"Nocturne Shoreline", 6" x 8" oil on linen, Frank Gardner © 2008
This one was along the shoreline with a two lone lights at a house in the trees. This was my first nocturne ever.
"Nocturne Shed", 8" x 6" oil on linen, Frank Gardner © 2008
From the same spot I painted this little shed near the lighthouse.
"Nocturne Rocks", 6"x 8" oil on linen, Frank Gardner © 2008
This last one was of some waves crashing on the rocks. This one is pretty simple, but I like how it came out.
The pre mixing really helped me to keep my values in check. I also tried to remember that you don't really see to much detail at night and resisted the temptation to throw in too much.
