Let’s Paint Day Lit Moon!

Remember the pictures of the day lit moon and autumn trees?
Let’s paint it!

Here is a sketch of our painting. I am using vine charcoal to make a rough sketch on wallis pastel paper. Don’t forget the little moon!

Speaking of the moon, I used some masking fluid to protect the paper underneath to make sure we get a nice bright white moon…just how it looked the evening I took the picture. Make sure you thoroughly let this dry before taking the next step or you’ll have a yucky mess. I have no patients so I whipped out my hair dryer and made it dry real quick!

Here I did a watercolor underwash. Remember, you’re going to need contrast so everything in this step is pretty dark. Let this dry completely or get your hair dryer out. I did.

Now the fun part! With pastels, add some autumn leaves. Look at how 3D-ish it is starting to look. Good. Don’t forget your sky holes too!

Finally, add some color to the ground, define the tree stumps and some twigs, and take off the masking fluid over the moon. I did shade the moon with the palest cream.

Day Lit Moon is about 9×7 and will be placed in a 10×8 black frame. It will be on display and for sale at the LaGrange Art Gallery in November and December.

Hope you enjoyed this demonstration!