Sunrises, Sunsets, and Rainbows: Skyscapes, Part 2

Watercolor and pencil sketch of  a sunrise by Annake

Sunrises are rewards for those of us who rise in the dark, eager to see what the day will bring. Because you have only about 20 minutes, start to finish, to capture a sunrise or sunset, it is probably best to work from a series of photographs taken at short intervals.  If you are sketching, I find it best to get the shaded areas done with their proper weights (values) and to write the names of specific colors or color combinations in the appropriate areas, to be filled in later. If you are going to try to capture the colors, believe it or not, a large box of children's' crayons may be your best tools. You can outline the major areas with pencil and scribble in enough color to match and blend together when you work on an advanced version of your sketch.

Sunrise at the Shore, photo by J.J.

Here is a simple sunrise scene that could have been taken almost anywhere. You may want to time yourself to see how quickly you can sketch it in crayon, pencil, or pastels.

Stormy sunrise photo by J.J.

Often our sunrises are paler and less intense than our sunsets, but once in a while we get a vivid, blood-red sunrise that brings to mind the old rhyme: "Red sky at morning, sailors take warning; red sky at night, sailors' delight." Sunrises often defy the ‘rule’ that clouds are always darker on the bottom. Because the source of light is below the horizon and is growing more intense by the moment, clouds are sometimes brighter at the bottom than they are at the top.

Sunrise on the Lake

Even after the sun has cleared the horizon, you have a short period of time to capture and record its effect on both the lower and the upper sky. Do NOT look directly at the sun at any time while you are doing this.  Choose your center of interest beforehand so that you can get the emphasis you want in your photograph or quick sketch. Give your center of interest the detail and prominence it deserves. This photograph shows a scene soon after the sunrise has faded.

Sunrise with deer, from Annake's sketchbook

One morning I was describing a sunrise in my journal as the colors changed. Suddenly I realized that I was not alone. A doe, last-year's fawn, was standing at the curb, staring intently at the same patch of sky that I was watching. The colors had faded to a pale saffron and a range of blues  Abruptly a thin arc of brilliant white appeared above the mesa. Within a few minutes it would be a great glowing disk, too bright to look at. Satisfied that our world was working properly, the doe and I turned away — she to munch on our infant lawn and I to write my impressions, make a simple sketch — and put her in it.

Rainbow

If you didn't know what causes a rainbow, you might easily feel that it was something magical and make up a story to explain it. People around the world made up myths and legends to explain rainbows. The most common one was that the rainbow is a bridge between Heaven and Earth, used by gods, their messengers, the ancestors of of the world's peoples, and/or for kings, pharaohs, heroes who died in battle, or people who ad lived exemplary lives to get to Heaven. Another idea was that the rainbow was actually a bow, usually in the hand of the god of thunder, to shoot arrows of lightning at the Earth.


A rainbow occurs when a thin layer of water droplets appears opposite the sun. This is usually just after a rainstorm passes by. Sunlight is made up of many wavelengths of colored light. As the rays of light are absorbed by the water drops, which are denser than the air, the light slows down and is bent at an angle. When the light leaves the water droplet, re-entering the air, it is bent again and speeds up. The bending of the light causes it to separate into its color components. When this happens in a collection of droplets, the result is a rainbow.

Double rainbow photo by J.J.

A rainbow is actually a complete circle, not just an arc. The entire circle can sometimes be seen and photographed from an airplane flying at fairly low altitudes. From the ground we only see an arc. So, sorry, there is no "end of the rainbow" — with or without a pot of gold. In order to see the rainbow, you need to have the sun behind you and no clouds nearby on the other side of the rainbow. The longest wavelengths of light are red; the shortest, violet. The red rays are bent the most and appear at the top and sides of the first layer of the rainbow. The violet rays are bent the least and appear at the bottom of the inside of the rainbow's arch. In between the two are the wavelengths of orange, yellow, green and blue. Occasionally there is a double rainbow. The second one is much fainter than the first and the colors are seen in the reverse order (violet on top, red on the bottom).

From Annake's sketchbook

When you want to capture a rainbow on paper, you will have to be even quicker than when sketching sunrises. I recommend this order: first, place the curve of the rainbow and its position on your sketch; then rough in the rainbow’s colors. Next, suggest the color of the sky surrounding the rainbow. Leave any foreground objects for last — they will be there long after the rainbow has faded and the sky clears. Remember that this is a sketch, meant to aid your memory, not a finished work — try to catch the elements of what made the scene memorable in the first place.

Sunset photo by J.J.

Sunset colors are often so brilliant that they seem unreal. Tropical sunsets can be especially vivid, You may want to lighten such colors in your composition and show the effect of the colors on objects in the foreground in order to make them seem more realistic. On the other hand, if you prefer the very brilliant colors anything in the foreground should be limited to strong silhouetted forms with very little color detail. Of course there are gradations between the two techniques, depending on the angle between the foreground and the sunset sky.

Winter sunset photo by J.J.

If you are taking photographs, I suggest you turn around and and  capture the sky in the east, directly opposite the sunset. You may find it better suits your purpose. The objects in the foreground are well-lit and not silhouetted. You can replicate the sunset sky in pastel colors and still show colors reflected on objects on the ground. This photograph shows the effect of light from a winter sunset on the ground in front of it. The sun is very low in the sky.



If you have the time to do so, take photographs or make quick sketches of the sunset scene on three or four consecutive days. Skies are seldom the same. Be sure you are positioned in the same spot each time. You should see quite a few differences, depending on the atmospheric conditions, which affect the quality of the light, and the time of year, which dictates the angle at which sunlight strikes the earth. Compare the scenes. Chose the ones you prefer and file or discard the others. Make at least one finished composition based on your choices. Combine elements from the different scenes if you like.

Panoramic sunset photo by J.J.

After the sunset you have a period of 20 to 30 minutes — depending on the terrain, weather, and time of year — to capture the lingering colors and their effects on the objects silhouetted. It is probably best if you don't begin until the sun has completely dropped below the horizon. Work with the reflection of the sun's colors on the clouds in the sky and what happens as they change. After-sunset skies are usually much more vivid than before-sunrise skies, particularly if there are thin clouds in the scene. Dust particles and smoke also produce rich reds and oranges. Notice the foreground as it darkens and gives you back-lit silhouettes. And don't forget to look over your shoulder to see what is happening in the east.

Watercolor sunset by Annake

Even if you don't photograph, draw, paint or embroider these beautiful aspects of Earth's technicolor light, please do pause to enjoy them.

 This post by Annake's Garden is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.