An Important Tip for Painting Reflections

'Easy on a Sunday'           18x24        pastel      ©Karen Margulis
available $450 

The sky is not always blue. I love working from bad photos that have overexposed skies. This gives me permission to invent the sky color. I enjoy creating my own mood for the landscape and the sky is a key player in creating this mood. The sky provides the light and thus the mood of the day.

It is fun to play with the color of the sky but there is an important thing to remember. Whenever you make a change to the lighting of the landscape it is important that you stay consistent in every aspect of that landscape. The sunlight and shadows must be consistent everywhere in the landscape. Reflections should also be considered.

Important tip:  If you change the color of the sky be sure the new color is reflected in the water. In other words if the sky is YELLOW the reflection will be yellow and not blue. It is easy to over-generalize about water and think that it is always blue. It is not always blue! Water reflects the colors of the surroundings so when water reflects the sky be sure it is the right color!

Color in the water is YELLOW

The water reflects the YELLOW sky