Gentle Passage

Gentle Passage — a lone sailboat drifting across a glowing ocean sunset.

Gentle Passage captures a lone sailboat drifting slowly across the water as the sun dips into the ocean, spreading vibrant color into its path. The scene holds an all-encompassing peace — the quiet solitude of standing in the vastness of ocean and evening sky.

MEDIUM: Digital Painting | STYLE: Painterly Realism | SIZES: 8×10 — 11×14 — 16×20 — Custom size may be available. CLICK HERE  to inquire. | ORIENTATION: Landscape | TOOLS: Procreate, 13″ iPad Pro, Apple Pencil Pro, Giclée Fine Art Archival paper and ink | AVAILABILITY: Prints available | CONTACT SHADOWMYST ART FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

ARTIST’S PROCESS:

Gentle Passage was painted in Procreate on a 13″ iPad Pro using the Apple Pencil Pro. The process commenced with a loose sketch layer to established the horizon line where the ocean meets the sky, the placement of the sun setting on the water and the position of the sailboat to balance the composition. Subsequently, color blocking was applied to the lower portion of the canvas just above the horizontal midpoint to define the water. A full layer of solid mid grey was placed below the water layer to anchor the water and create the base for the sky. A third set of layers were created for the setting sun and the circle shape was created using the Procreate “Quick Shape” tool to set a perfect circle. This layer was duplicated 3 times, color fill changed for each and the layer blurred to spread the glow across the horizon.
Multiple layers were utilized above the grey sky base layer, Gaussian Blur tool was used on each to blend the color edges together and create depth and the illusion of the night sky overtaking the brilliance of the setting sun.
These layers were grouped and duplicated, moved to the lower half of the canvas and using the transform tool the layers were flipped vertically creating a mirror image of the night sky now above the water. The adjustment tool was used on the grouped layers to spread them further down the canvas elongating the colors of the evening sky over the surface of the ocean.
The next stage created a layer set to “Add” mode and placed above all, using the Procreate Soft Brush from the Airbrush group set to 15% size and 60% opacity passes of sharp red orange were laid down horizontally across the canvas behind the sun at the horizon line. Each stroke of the brush applied with gentle pressure built up a strong glowing line creating the fire colors of the sunset.  A second layer following the same process introduced yellow into the sunset followed by white. Gaussian Blur was applied to each layer individually to blend the colors followed by the Procreate Smudge tool to spread the colors out in streaks to each side of the canvas.
A final layer was created to detail the outline of the sailboat and sails.

CHALLENGE:

Gentle Passage’s central challenge was capturing a strong, glowing sun at the heart of the evening sunset.
The first step was creating a layer for the disk of the sun placed with the bottom 8th of the circle below the horizon line. The outline of the sun was drawn with medium red/orange color using the procreate Technical Pen brush at full opacity and 10% size and holding one finger on the ipad surface at the end point of the drawing to engage the Procreate “Quick Shape” tool to solidify a perfect circle. This outline was then filled with the same red/orange color.
Duplicating this layer twice began the next phase in creating the sun’s glow. On each layer the shape was selected and a new color filled in the shape. The second layer was filled with bright yellow and the third layer with white. The third layer was set to “Add” mode to intensify the white color.  Each layer was then blurred with the Gaussian Blur tool to spread the glow of each around the edges of the circle creating the blended glow of the setting sun.

SUBJECTS AND THEMES:

Gentle Passage — Sailboat Sunset Painting — Ocean Sunset — Dusk Sky — Solitude — Peace —  CONTACT SHADOWMYST ART FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION.