Finally got some time to paint again. Did the front wheel of the dump truck and most of the warm reflections. Also added an orange running light.

This session I used two strings – a cool neutral for the chrome and a warm for the reflections. The cool string was based a mixture of Prussian Blue, Burnt Umber, Permanent Alizarin Crimson, and Cadmium Yellow Medium, lightened with Titanium White. The warm string consisted of varying amounts of Burnt Sienna, Cadmium Red Medium, and Cadmium Yellow Medium, mixed into the neutral string.

For this painting I’ve mainly been using Da Vinci Top Acryl brights. These are fairly stiff synthetic brushes that hold a sharp, chiseled point. They work really well with the water miscible paints, especially when I need to use a brush full of solvent (in this case water) to sharpen up an edge. The brushes are also good for modulating the tone of lighter paints on a black canvas. Since they are really stiff, I can use them to scrub the paint to allow more of the black to show through when I need a darker tone.

Happy Thanksgiving!  The cab of the truck and its reflection in the exhaust stack are now painted. Next up – probably the chrome on the front wheel of the truck and then a lot of the warmer highlights and reflections. I used a combination of Prussian Blue, Cadmium Yellow Medium, and Titanium White to give a warmer, greener blue that is slightly different from the color in the night sky.

This evening I painted the dump bed and the wheel loader’s front tires. The next painting session will likely bring big changes as I paint the cab of the dump truck light blue.

I was really torn choosing between painting the loader literally or keeping it very dark and mysterious, as it appeared immediately after I painted the sky. My compromise was to exercise restraint and keep most of the yellows on the darker side. I definitely like where things are heading, but the darker, silhouetted look also had promise, so I may have to do a second version of this composition.

The yellow string was based on Cadmium Yellow Medium mixed with Raw Umber, Burnt Umber, and Prussan Blue. The yellow is Royal Talens Cobra and the other colors are Winsor & Newton Artisan Water Mixable.

The snow was really easy to paint – it is dry brushed Titanium White. I dipped the brush directly into the white, then wiped it almost dry with a paper towel. The snow is just sketched in now so that I can understand the composition. The plan is to revisit it to add more intense white highlights.

Here’s the painting in the studio.

The sky and its reflection are in! I’m using Winsor & Newton Artisan Water Mixable Oil Colors. Water miscible oils do have their downsides, but one thing I like about them is that I can easily go back in and sharpen an edge with a clean, wet brush. The same technique works for regular oils, but the brush needs to be loaded with a solvent like Gamsol. At this point, the horizon and the edges of the reflections below the horizon are soft. All other edges are hard. The sky is a mixture of Prussian Blue and French Ultramarine, lightened with Titanium White.

Now I have to decide what’s next: the yellows of the loader, the mysterious shadows on the dump box, or the bright blue on the cab of the truck?

I’m about 10 hours into this drawing for “Clearing Snow” on a 30″ x 40″ canvas. It is going to be a nocturn so before drawing anything I covered the canvas with Mars Black Golden Heavy Body Acrylic. I’m drawing with a 0.7mm Montana Acrylic paint marker that has been filled with a dark gray mixture. The gray makes the drawing harder to see, but it will be easier to paint over than the white I used in my last nocturne. I am using a 2mm black marker as my “eraser”.

The back wheels on the dumptruck and the gas tank have been reworked in a slightly lighter shade of gray. At this point, I’ve pretty much finished my 6 hour punch list of truck items. Now I will do the punch list for the loader and then I can start painting.

I’ve spent so much time with this drawing that I have a pretty good idea of how I will apply the paint. As with most complex paintings, the challenge is to establish the values early on while not losing the essense of the drawing.

Using the headlights and running lights to establish the lightest lights worked well in “Linemen Working” so I will try that again here. Then I will lay in the blue gradient for the sky and its reflection on the wet ground. The sky is the key to tying together the lights of the loader bucket and the shadow areas of the truck.

Even though the painting is a nocturn, the sky will actually be pretty bright to bring out the silhouette of the truck. At the same time, the sky must be darker than the bucket. Getting this right will probably require the snow in the bucket and the brightest yellows on the loader. After that I will nail down the lightest blue on the dump truck and figure out the values in the light and shadow on the dump box. By then I should have a pretty good idea of how to fill in the rest of the painting.

It’s like a big jigsaw puzzle.