night sky

[laurasart1992]

how do you paint the sky at night? how do you make it look like this
http://www.touchofart.eu/galeria/Elz...Y_emo120-v.jpg

http://browse.deviantart.com/traditi...stars#/d2u1kxh

how did they get the colors and get it to look like a real sky?

[yellow_oxide]

Well, first those look nothing like a real sky. Not even close.

Second, the first one looks like oil or acrylic, but the second one is definitely watercolor, so the techniques needed to make them are going to be completely different.

A good color for a night sky is black. If you don't want a solid black sky then consider an indigo (a mix of blue and black) or possibly a prussian blue. Although with prussian blue, specifically in watercolor, it might be hard to get it dark enough and will require a few paint heavy washes and a lot of paint to get the job done.

What medium are you using?

[laurasart1992]

i want it to look like a starry night...and look real

[llawrence]

Originally Posted by yellow_oxide

consider an indigo (a mix of blue and black)

Or you could consider using real indigo.

[yellow_oxide]

well yeah, but the real stuff (NB1) is very fugitive and I've only seen it in dry pigment form. There's apparently a synthetic version (PB66) from a few brands like mussini (dickblick link), but according to dickblick it sounds like it's also fugitive, or at least something I wouldn't trust. Since indigo is a purplish blackish dullish blue I think a really good replacement would be indanthrone blue (PB60) mixed with a touch of black.

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The problem with making a painting like starry night by van gogh (as you mentioned in your PM) and making it look real is that it's like those are two different things, at different ends of the real/not real spectrum. His night sky, while very good and likable, is also extremely not real looking, and if you were to make it look real then it'd no longer look like starry night. Does this make sense?

Now if you just want to make a night sky and not have a specific painting in mind to make it be like then there's a ton of questions to consider. Is it early in the night, the dead of night, nearing morning? Is it in the city where the stars disappear or in the country? Are the stars a major focus of the image? Is it a full moon? Are there clouds?

The second to the last painting here is a good example of a realistic night sky at the end of twilight when the only light left is a faint blue glow on the horizon.