A Crannóg is an artificial island, usually in a lake or river and the earliest in Ireland are dated to around 6,500 years ago. Probably built as defensive of fortified homes. At present there are about 1,200 known sites and counting.
Although I’m using black quite a bit, I’m trying not to have the overall tone too dark. I like painting the effects of light on a landscape and if there is to be light, it will not be seen without dark areas. In previous paintings I think I had too much contrast, or more precisely, the shadows were a bit severe. The black paint I’m using is Ivory Black. Its transparent and when mixed with Burnt Umber or Burnt Sienna, nice dark transparent shadows are produced. I normally use a dark transparent blue (Ultramarine, Prussian, Cobalt) and also mix it with black for shadows. The blue used here is Cerulean, picked for the morning blue sky. It’s light in tone and also opaque – not at all good for shadows when mixed with black.
The harmony of colour is so important to me, I wouldn’t use a different blue for the lower part of the painting. I just deal with the problems posed using this paint. Because of the lack of this blue in the foreground shadows and its weakness in the green mixes, I put in a few strokes into this area, of almost pure Cerulean (with a little black added) to harmonize with the upper sky blue.
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