Graded sky over a mountain ridge
Okay. Last lesson we did a flat sky, one pass, no going back in. Today we're adding a gradient to that, which sounds like a small step and is actually the thing most people never quite get right, because a gradient sky is two decisions happening on paper at the same time and you don't get to slow down and think about them separately.
That's the whole lesson today. One wash, changing as it goes, over a ridge line you're going to mask off with your brush, not tape.
What we're painting
A sky that goes darker blue at the top and lightens as it drops toward a mountain ridge. Think early evening, up the canyon, that band of paler light that sits right over the peaks before the color really commits. Simple shape. One ridge line, one wash, done.
I'm having you paint the ridge from a photo, by the way, and if anyone gives you grief about painting from a reference instead of "real life," ignore them. The composition is the work. Deciding where that ridge line sits on your page, how much sky you're giving it, that's the actual decision that makes this painting succeed or not. Nobody needs you standing on a mountain to make that call.
Steps
1. Draw your ridge line lightly in pencil. Keep it low on the page, maybe bottom third. You want sky to be the star here. Don't get fussy with the peaks, three or four bumps and a couple of variations in height is plenty.
2. Wet a clean brush with just water and run it along the ridge line, on the sky side, then blot it slightly dry on a paper towel. This is your feathering brush for later. Set it down where you can grab it fast. I mean it, have it sitting there ready before you load any paint.
3. Mix your sky blue with plenty of water. More water than you think. This needs to move on the page for a few seconds before our air locks it down.
4. Load your big brush and lay the color in at the top of the sky, full strength. Pull it down in horizontal strokes, and as you come down toward the ridge, start adding water to your brush between strokes so the color thins out. You're not mixing a lighter blue in a separate puddle and switching to it. You're diluting as you go, right there on the paper.
5. When you get close to the ridge line, switch to that damp clean brush and gently pull the color down into the horizon, feathering it lighter. This has to happen while the wash is still wet. If it's started to set, don't touch it. Walk away instead. I'll say more about that in a second.
6. Once the sky is down and still wet, drop in your ridge shape with a darker, cooler color. Let it touch the wet sky edge on purpose. That soft blur where mountain meets sky is what sells the whole thing. If you wait until the sky's dry to paint the ridge, you get a hard cutout line instead, which reads more like a sticker than a mountain.
7. Stop. Put the brush down. Walk to the kitchen, get water, whatever.
The part where you don't fix it
Here's my honest opinion and I hold it pretty firm: don't fix a mistake mid-wash. Nine times out of ten, poking at a drying wash makes it worse than whatever the mistake was. Our air dries fast, faster than what you've seen in tutorials filmed somewhere humid, and that means the window where you can still blend is short. Once it's gone, it's gone, and going back in just drags pigment around and gives you a bloom or a hard water line you didn't want.
If your gradient comes out patchy, let it dry completely, look at it with fresh eyes, and decide then whether it needs a second layer or whether it's actually fine and you're just being hard on yourself. Don't decide in the first ninety seconds. That's when you'll do damage.
A napkin, basically
I'll tell you where I actually got decent at ridge lines. I was in a ward meeting a while back, planning a Needles trip with the guys, and I had a napkin in front of me instead of anything useful. I started sketching a rock spire on it while half listening, no reference, no plan, just shape memory from trips I'd done. It came out better than almost anything I'd painted on real paper that whole month. Kept the napkin. It's still in my notebook.
The point isn't that napkins are magic. The point is I wasn't precious about it. I wasn't trying to get it right, I was just putting a shape down. That's the energy you want for a ridge line. Don't measure every peak. Get the rhythm of ups and downs and commit to the pencil marks, then commit harder to the brush.
Before next time
Do two of these. First one, let yourself rush the ridge line just to see what happens when you don't feather in time. Second one, slow down on that step and see the difference. Bring both, even the rushed one, especially the rushed one.