Recently I’ve explored sketching fire – a rare occasion. But the local easter fire tradition that signifies the end of winter and welcomes spring was a good way to explore that.
Sketching fire is a lot like sketching water – a lot of times you just paint around it and add accents in the shadows. It’s a great subject for experimenting with light effects, and cloud anatomy. I have to be fair and say that most of my easter fire was actually thick white smoke, it had rained a lot earlier in the day and the locals were glad they got their bonfire started at all. So for a good while all we saw was a dense cloud of smoke, and then the entire pile lit up in beautiful intense yellow and orange flames.
I explored my smoke and fire situation in two small very loose sketches. I took photos of the fire that I explored later in my sketchbook. As mentioned, you can paint around the smoke to preserve the white paper, and punch in strong accents of yellow, pink and orange where you can see flames. I added lots of dark blue (ultramarine and prussian blue), olive green and sepia for the blurred background hills, and added in a bit of warm gray and salmon pink that appears in the smoke with colored pencil. For these sketches I used the small Schmincke watertank palette I recently reviewed, plus a selection of red, yellow and neutral colored pencils.
Less is definitely more here. You can lose the impression of light and luminosity quickly if you add too much paint or obscure your layers with muddy colors. I had to remind myself not to add too much, that paints the highlights away. High contrasts and decisive strokes help a lot.
I found that sketching fire and exploring different ways to show flames and smoke is quite fun and I should do it more often, even if it’s just a quick small sketch. If there are any arsonists and/or fire fighters in the community, feel free to invite me! Just kidding, but I guess the easter fire is one of the seldom opportunities for seeing a communal celebration with a bonfire where I live. Do you have any of these in your area?
Aquí en Cantabria y en Bizkaia, aunque pienso que en toda España se celebra con hogueras la fiesta de la noche de San Juan el día 24 de junio, dando entrada al solsticio de verano y a múltiples fiestas que se celebran en ese trimestre. ahora con los peligros de incendio se cuidan mucho ese tipo de hogueras por los peligros que conlleva. me ha gustado mucho el artículo. esta semana pasada estuve repasando tu blog desde los comienzos y sigo enamorada de él. también repasé algunos de los cursos que te tengo comprados y ahora que llega mi jubilación repetiré o terminaré o comenzaré alguno de ellos. Besos Julia.
Thank you so much dear Marta! Yes I can imagine the wildfires are much worse in Spain. I’ll have to find out if we have any celebrations with bonfires for the summer solstice over here, I just remember people raising a big tree with colorful ribbons and dancing around it on June 24, but I have no idea if there was fire involved.
I’m happy to hear you’re still reading all of my old blog posts again, I’ve wanted to organize them a bit better so that it’s a useful archive – if you find there’s anything missing or impractical, do let me know. All my best to you and enjoy your retirement with many sketching and painting sessions!
a mí me encanta cómo está y me viene muy bien, a veces te copio ideas perdóname y ahora que por fin me voy a jubilar todos esos cursos que tenía de mariposas de hongos puede volverlos a hacer con toda la tranquilidad y probar con más seguridad en la calle. un abrazo Julia.
Thank you again for sharing what you are exploring in art. Your work inspires me to try more ideas.
Thank you Judy, and as always I’m glad to hear you find my posts helpful and inspiring!
Hi Julia,
I watched your lesson landscapes on sketchbook revival. I think I watched it three times to really take in all of your good advice. Thank you, it was very helpful.
Thanks Nora, it’s great to hear you’re getting so much out of it. And there’s so much more I wanted to include, but I didn’t want to overload the session. I put a lot of additional info into my PDF guide and into the small course about that topic, too.
Dearest Julia
Every time I receive a post of your blog, I feel so pleased by your dedication and great love for what you do with your pasion for your artform and for your endearing way of sharing it with us, your subscribers. I wish you good health and lots of good humour for the coming season of Spring- & Summertime!
Thank you Marga, I really appreciate it, it’s your kind feedback that keeps me going! Hope you’ll have beautiful sketching adventures in the summer, too!
What a great topic idea, helps create interesting colors in a single scene
Thank you Jenny!
You don’t see a lot of paintings of fire! These are really nice, fun and creative ideas, Julia. I love the use of colored pencil with watercolor. Thanks for all you do.
Thank you Kristin!
Hi,
What great tips and what fun to have a community bonfire! I will practice this this week! I am originally from Norway and on the summer solstice there are many community bonfires to celebrate. I currently live in the US (but might be moving back soon due to the political situation here) in Washington State, and besides camping, and fun at the beach, there really aren’t many community bonfires. Due to the risk of wildfire every year recently, we have even had fire bans, so no camping fires either. They are predicting a severe El Nino summer and fall so the risk is even higher this year. I am not looking forward to it.
Thanks for everything!
Hi JJ, thanks for sharing, I can imagine that there are lots of cheerful celebrations for the summer solstice in Norway, and the nature in the Pacific Northwest looks amazingly beautiful and wild.
Yeah we also have had increased dryness and wildfire risks, and local communities were really torn between being cautious and banning the yearly bonfire, or going ahead with it but with restrictions. Unfortunately this stuff quickly derails into heated political conversations, but then again what doesn’t these days..
Fingers crossed that El Nino won’t be as bad this year!
Living in Australia in Sydney there are many terrifying fires in the summer. Am so enjoying my course am up to reptiles now
Am constantly amazed at how quickly with deft strokes you create exact likenesses your subjects almost instantly come alive.
Have pneumonia and at 90 next month am required to lie low for longer than I like BUT I have my sketching course to keep me quiet!
Hope you get well soon Janet!