Nocturne Notes – Christopher Leeper

Nocturne Notes

Christopher Leeper

Evening Wharf     14 x 18″     Acrylic     © Christopher Leeper

  In our 2020 Voices of Encounter job interview with Christopher Leeper, we pointed out his facility with a number of mediums—watercolor, oil and acrylic. He has utilized all a few mediums in his nocturnes as very well, but claims that acrylic appears to in good shape the unique ailments of doing work at night time very best for him. Leeper despatched us examples of his nocturnes in all 3 mediums together with his ideas for artists seeking to take a look at evening time painting en plein air. Pay a visit to our interview with Leeper to see far more of his get the job done or go to his site:  Christopher Leeper Fantastic Art.

Christopher Leeper’s Five Tips

for Portray Plein Air Nocturnes

in Oil and Acrylic

1.  When setting up a portray, place down a darkish floor. It can be deep blue or violet or even a deep umber or red. I keep away from using tube black and normally combine my black. You can use a black pigment but be careful that it does not cause your darkest values to get much too dense and flat seeking.

2.  Create your essential gentle/dim sample early in the painting course of action. This can help you go the painting together speedily. I generally wipe back again my gentle shapes out of the initial ground color.

3.  Check out to keep away from making use of a painting light that is much too vivid. It is definitely difficult on your eyes if your portray area is far too brightly lit and it will impact how nicely you are in a position to see the dim scene in entrance of you. I use an LED gentle that has variable brightness settings. Most times I use the dimmest placing.

4.  As you work, your eyes will modify to the darkish and you will commence to see more specifics in the shadows. Make absolutely sure you do not set too a lot of center values and aspects in the portray. Go with your first impact. Cluttering the painting with pointless detail will make the painting appear fussy and overworked.

5.  Continue to keep your lights opaque and use clear layers for your darks. This will give your portray far more depth.

Watercolor

Early Night, Gloucester          15 x 22″          Watercolor

   This was a studio painting centered on a picture. Since most of the values of the landscape had been somewhat dim and identical, it was crucial to render the subtle colour modifications to present the depth of kind.

Midnight Harbor          15 x 22″          Watercolor

   This painting was done as a demonstration video clip on my YouTube channel. Many levels of a Indanthrone Blue/Everlasting Brown/Raw Umber combination had been made use of to get the inky black of the sky and h2o.

Acrylic

Lakeside Nocturne          14 x 11″          Acrylic

   Lakeside Nocturne is one particular of the quickest plein air nocturnes I have concluded. The time painting was about 45 minutes. I like the brevity and overall economy of the brushwork. At times significantly less is much more when it comes to night time-time paintings. When you render far too a lot detail, it can defeat the fleeting effect that our eyes just take in at night time and can produce an unrealistic and stiff painting.

Night time Wharf               14 x 18″               Acrylic

   I had been painting all working day as aspect of the Cape Ann, MA Plein Air function. I was hoping to finish the day with a nocturne. I started out the block-in and then hit a wall. I stood there in a stupor and just could not make myself do it. All I could consider about was going again to my host’s household and sleeping. When that takes place, you pack it up and leave. It was finished afterwards in the studio.

Bus Burlesque                    16 x 20″                    Acrylic

   In 2016, I participated in the En Plein Air Texas event in San Angelo, TX. I found this good subject matter when I was wandering all over in downtown San Angelo. When I observed this crimson bus sitting at the rear of the Useless Horse Saloon I was thrilled. What an wonderful matter! Minor did I know that it would be the most unforgettable nocturne portray of my occupation. It turned out that the bus was owned by a Michigan-based mostly touring rock-and-roll burlesque group. They lived and traveled the nation on this bus. As I labored late into the evening, the barely dressed woman group associates would occur out to the alley to see my progress. It was a surreal and exciting night of painting.

Vista                    24 x 30″                    Acrylic

Underneath the Brine                         30 x 48″                         Acrylic

   The two paintings higher than are older, studio items (2012-2013). They had been based on comprehensive images sessions in the Youngstown, Ohio place. I was intrigued by the reflected gentle of the metropolis upon the winter sky. Most of the photographs had been shot on wet, moist evenings that would build environment and reflections.

Oil

Evening Yard                    18 x 24″                    Oil

Complex Ecstasy          30 x 40″          Oil and Acrylic

   Another more mature, studio piece primarily based on my photography classes in the Youngstown, Ohio place.

   Numerous many thanks to Christopher Leeper for furnishing his photographs and textual content on Nocturne painting. All artwork copyright Christopher Leeper.