Redo: Radio Tower 2022

I’ve painted the radio tower that can be seen from Danehy Park many times. The first was among my first-ever paintings in March 2021; the second, almost 2 years later in December 2022, after a particularly inspiring real-life sunset; and the third, just over a year after that, a much more subdued version which I painted from life from April 2024.

The 2022 painting is the one for which I had the highest hopes, and the most beloved reference. But I remember being unhappy with how it turned out and thinking I might come back to it someday.

Here are the reference photos for the 2022 version, from that same day.

Here’s a similar reference which I took a year later, in December 2023.

Just over two years from my December 2022 sunset, I’ve just reread Jill Gustavis’ post Magic Happens When You Repeat Paintings and I’m curious about redoing this painting to see if I can apply anything I’ve learned about sunsets in the meantime, and/or anything from Jill’s tips.

Taking Stock

First, I need to take stock of what I feel is working or not working from the 2022 piece. Here it is again.

I did not do “Photo to Painting” posts at that time so I’m not sure what I would have said about it then. Now, though, here is my assesment:

Working:

• The colors are vibrant!
• The red light on top of the tower! Skillful water control and timing in adding a bead of red just as the clouds were drying so that a white-centered red light appeared.
• The shapes generally work for me; there is a bit of clumsiness in the way the black paint is applied but the composition works conceptually.
• I kinda like the coral color in the middle cloud; it is heightened but still reminiscent of reality. It don’t recall which pigments I used but this appears to be something like a combination of Opera Rose and New Gamboge.

Not working:

• The colors I chose are much brighter than life which, instead of emphasizing how bright it seeemed in real life, ends up making it seem fake and unrealistic. Instead of a celebration of the brightness of reality, it feels like a replacement of reality.
• The colors are in competition with each other for dominance, and all of them are bright so none of them stand out.
• Some of the mixes work against each other and create mixes that are unintentionally muted / muted in the wrong way. Particularly I can see unwanted muddiness on the lower clouds in the combination of what appears to Quin Violet and Pyrrol Orange.
• The colors I chose are all roughly the same value and intensity, but in the photo, some of the “glow” effect comes from that fact that the values in the upper sky are darker than those in the lower sky.

I created a grayscale version of the photo and increased the contrast a bit to find the “glow.”

Color Studies

Since color seemed to me the main problem, I decided to keep the composition roughly the same and try a few quick color studies to try different palettes.

The schemes:

1. Bright: Hansa Yellow Deep, Opera Pink, Cobalt Turquoise. This is closest to the original color scheme but, because it only uses three colors, has more cohesion. Dark colors aren’t really possible, but the Opera Pink/Cobalt Turquoise combo does make a lovely lilac that is reminiscent of the purplest reference photo.
2. Dull: MANS, Venetian Red, Indanthrone Blue. This is the dullest set of colors I could think of. Diluted MANS is fine for the sky yellows, but diluted Venetian Red for the coral is not bright enough for the reds, and the combination of it with Indanthrone Blue is way too gray. I knew I wouldn’t like this, but Jill Gustavis urges you to try things you think you won’t like! One thing you can say for this set is that dark mixes are easy.
3. My instinct: Naples Yellow Deep, Quinacridone Coral, Phthalo Blue Red Shade. These are the first three colors I thought of for the reference photo. I like them, but the upper sky came out more gray-violet than I quite wanted, and there’s none of the turquoise-to-yellow effect that I like in the reference.
4. Variant: MANS, Quin Red (PV19), Phthalo Turquoise. I varied all three of my initial instinct colors to my second choices. I liked MANS for the sky yellow from the dull set, so I used that; switched to a bluer red tinged with MANS for the coral; and used a dark turquoise for the upper blues of the sky. In this case, I was able to get some of that light turquoise effect as it washes to the yellow. And the PV19 mix with Phthalo Turquoise, while a little violety, was nice for darker clouds.
5. Best Of: I put together my favorite bits of palettes 3 and 4, using Naples Yellow Deep and Quin Coral from Palette 3 but Phthalo Turquoise from Palette 4. The Quin Coral grays out the Phthalo Turquoise a little more for those upper clouds, and I’m still able to get the yellow-to-turquoise-but-not-green gradient. I decided to use this palette for a larger painting.

First Attempt

Like:

• After doing the color studies, the sky came together really quickly, without use of a reference photo. I started with a quick yellow-to-blue gradient, then painted the red clouds over it while it was still wet.
• I like the freshness and weirdness of the one-layer hot press sky, even though it’s definitely got its “quirks”!
• Smear-free ink foreground because I did it on top of the finished, fully dried sky. (I learned my lesson after I got some smearing of the black ink into my paint when painting over fountain pen in the color studies.)

Learned:

• The sky dried lighter than I would like; now it’s looking what my friend Hanna calls “maiden auntish.” Because I was trying to correct garish color, I suppose I went too far. Perhaps I should have aimed for oversaturated when wet.
• I like the sky colors, but they’re maybe actually now too low-chroma? Maybe some value variation within the pink bands (lighter streaks pulled out with thirsty brush) would add some dimension and glow? Could still also probably use even more value contrast for glow.
• Comparing with the reference, I think the clouds should be pinker/purpler, actually. I’m curious if using a cooler red would have given it more of a pinky look.
• The previous edition used a brush for the radio tower but this time I opted for fountain pen for more precision. Then my fountain pen looked too thin so I went over it again, which ends up looking messy I think. I’m also not sure I like the fountain pen “look” overall.
• If I had had patience, perhaps I could have babysat the drying clouds and softened the spidery edges.
• I forgot to dot in the light while the sky was still damp, so I rewet part of the page and dropped in the glow later, then added the middle dot with white gouache. I should have rewet the whole page – you can see the diagonal line where the second layer of water dried!
• You can also faintly see my underdrawing of the tower because I did not follow it at all. Might as well have not put it!

Second Attempt

I decided to try a second version right away to put these concrete lessons into action:

• Cooler red (PV19 instead of PR209); the other colors are the same (WN Naples Yellow Deep, WN Phthalo Turquoise)
• More saturated when wet
• Try thirsty brush to lighten bands into some of the clouds
• Babysit the drying paper and remember to lift the light and smooth the cloud edges
• Use a brush for the foreground

I also ended up using a different aspect ratio for convenience (I had some paper already cut). This is my normal 6×9.

I made several attempts at the sky background this time; it did not come as easily as the first one had. Since I was getting up my own ass about this one, I decided I’d pretty much reached the limit of what I can do at my current skill level, and I won’t keep making attempts.

Liked:

• More saturated colors than before!
• YES on using Quin Red instead of Quin Coral. As much as I love Quin Coral, I think the PV19 very important coolness into the red/pink.
• Better cyans
• Less “muddiness” in the yellows. A useful innovation I developed after a few frustrating sky attempts where I kept blending dirty blues into my clean horizon yellows: using two wash brushes!! One reserved for light colors and one for blending the darks.

Learned:

• The radio tower, painted with a Grumbacher Goldenedge #2 script brush, is now too thick and awkward!
• I messed up and put a bird on it. Not a bad solution but if I had planned the bird, I would have given it more focus and placed it differently.

Conclusion

Since this is a piece I was always a bit unsatisfied with, it felt cathartic to have a chance to “fix” some of these mistakes. I didn’t feel capable, in 2022, of understanding why it didn’t match my vision or what to do differently. Now, can see some very specific ways in which I have technically improved in the intervening two years: better water control, more subtle/realistic color choices, looser washier strokes. But I also feel a certain renewed appreciation for what I did then! I was not afraid of bold, intense color and I was willing to go for it and throw everything against the wall.

I don’t feel like my new versions are perfect or that I’ve “arrived” – I can definitely still see issues – but I feel that continuing to do redos is giving me diminishing returns. I feel that, unlike Jill Gustavis, I am not really cut out to keep doing versions within the span of a few days, at least not at this point in my journey. Instead, it feels more effective for me to let time (months, years) go by between redos.

While redoing the same piece within days is still frustrating to me, I do think that I would like to try doing more redos of some of my much earlier work, just to see how I’ve changed. And some day, I could do redos of those redos!

More assorted takeaways of this process:

• Color studies! This practice worked really well in helping me test out color combinations in a low-commitment situation. Plus I found it fun!
• Saturated color is a skill I do not want to lose! At the same time, the freshness of a single layer is so pretty. Oversaturate when wet!
• Two wash brushes are useful for dark/light gradients.
• As much as I like PR209 right out of the tube, it tends to go redder than I want when mixed with the yellow of the sky. PV19 can mix cooler, pinker corals (especially when it automatically mixes with the yellow of the sky).